Keep Calm and Carry On
by katiekayx
Summary: <html><head></head>Lincoln and AltLivia venture to the blue!verse before it's too late. Can their relationship withstand the Fringe events that are sure to follow? Follows 3x20 "6:02AM EST" & goes AU after. Multiple chapters. Lincoln/AltLiv with mentions of Peter/Olivia.</html>
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **Hello there, all! This is a new thing for me, a multi-part fic! I know, I know. You're probably shocked. This started out as a one-shot, but the more I kept writing, the more I realized I wanted to keep going with it, especially with how it ends in this first part. So, this is the usual Leeham pairing, and takes place after 3x20, 6:02AM. There are spoilers. Please review, they're the only thing that keeps me writing! Especially with this one, because how fast I add more chapters depends on the reviews that I get! For now I have planned this to be presented in three parts, but that could change! Bear with me, since I am working a full-time job and am very busy with that. x_

_** Disclaimer:** I still don't own Fringe, or any of the characters. I own the plot and the ideas presented in this fanfic.  
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><p>He was frozen, rooted to the spot. He knew she could take care of herself, but he couldn't let her do this, not this time. He ran to the door and opened it and saw that she wasn't to the elevator yet. "Liv!" He yelled, and she whirled around, jogging back towards him.<p>

"What? Is something wrong with Henry? What's-"

"I'm not going to let you do this." Lincoln said.

Her face drooped, "God, Linc, don't do this. I told you. I need you here, for Henry."

"What about you? Who's going to be there for you?"

"That's not important right now."

"Like hell it isn't… Olivia. I can't let you do this." He stared at her, steely determination written across his face and she knew he was going to be stubborn about this. "You can't do this alone. You need help, my help. And I need to go with you, okay? I need to make sure you're okay."

"Lincoln." She said softly, and reached for his hand, "I appreciate it, I do, but I know what I need to do, I just need to get it done. Alone."

"What about Henry? What if something goes wrong and there's no one there to help you? Did you ever think about what's going to happen to your son?"

"Don't do that, Lincoln. Of course I've thought about that. That's why I left him with you, that's why I told you to take him to my Mom's. I've thought these things through; I've made the decisions that are best for him." Anger flashed across her face.

"What about the other people in your life? What about your Mom, and Charlie and your friends? What about me?" He asked, desperation lining his voice. He couldn't stand the thought of not going with her. If something happened to her, he didn't know what he'd do with himself. He can't just sit by idly and watch her walk away from him and into what was almost certain danger. Not only was she going to break into Liberty Island, but she was going to cross _universes_ for Christ's sake.

Her face softened, and he could see the conflict written there. "I can't let you come with me," she said, "because if anything happens to you, then Henry won't have a parent. And I need that for him."

"You're making it sound like you're not coming back." Lincoln said, and he felt as though he couldn't breathe.

"I don't know what's going to happen, Linc. I'm going to be careful, I swear I am, because I can't stand the thought of not seeing him or you again, okay?" It was as if they were preparing for the worst. All the things they had been afraid to say before were coming out now, like this was the last time they'd be together.

Lincoln took a step closer and cupped her face with his hands. "Look at me." He said, and she met his eyes with her own, "I love you." He said, and she swallowed thickly. He hadn't said that to her since the night Henry was born and neither one of them had brought it up since then. "You have to come back. Promise me, you're not going to do anything too dangerous."

She was almost at a loss for words as she stared at the man she had long considered her best friend. He was becoming much more than that, and part of her was angry. Angry that it was taking her almost dying and a war to bring them together. She was angry with all the time they had wasted, because she knew now that she felt much more for Lincoln than she had previously thought. "As long as Peter Bishop doesn't try to kill me, I have everything under control." Lincoln's eyes darkened at the sentence, and she put a hand on his arm to calm him down, "He hates me, Lincoln. He's going to do whatever he can to make sure that his Olivia and his world are safe. I know this. But I need to do this, I need to try."

Lincoln was quiet for a long time. "You're a hero, you know?" He asked her, "You're stepping over a lot of boundaries here, Liv."

"I have to do this. If there are going to be millions of people killed… at least if I try and fail, I'll still know that I tried. That I didn't just sit by and do nothing."

"… Are you going to tell him about Henry?"

"No." She shook her head.

"Why?"

"It would distract him. If he knew he had a son, he'd want to come here immediately; he wouldn't be able to think about trying to save his world. Maybe after… when all this settles down, there'll be a way he can find out. But for now, I…." She trailed off, "You're his father, Lincoln." She said, and he was stunned. Absolutely stunned.

"Wh-what? Liv…"

"You've been there for him from the beginning. His father never really was an option. Like I said before… you're the only one that I trust."

"You have to come back, okay?" He was getting a little choked up, and was embarrassed because he knew she could tell. But for right now, he didn't care. He needed her to know how much she meant to him. "I'm not going to say goodbye to you. Because that's just depressing."

She laughed, and he smirked at her, his trademark smile. "I promise I'll be careful. I'll be back, hopefully with good news."

"Liv… if they… if they don't take you coming back there so kindly… how are you going to get in touch with me? If you need help…"

"I'll find a way. But I'm going to be okay."

"I don't really feel like traversing universes to save your ass, so you better be." He teased, and she rolled her eyes.

She didn't say anything, but instead reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him again. She breathed in his scent, and he did the same, both of them unwilling to let go for the time being.

They heard a noise in Henry's room, and both of them instinctively bolted for the door. Henry was standing in his crib, holding onto the side carefully, as his legs were barely used to the weight he was putting on them. Olivia breathed out a sigh of relief and Lincoln put a hand on her shoulder, as if to tell her that he had been worried too.

"Mama." The baby said, clear as a bell. Olivia's eyes grew wide as she looked up at Lincoln, who couldn't stop smiling.

"He's… he's only a few months old!" She said incredulously, and Lincoln laughed.

"Must have got that Dunham intelligence in him." He said, and she let out a laugh of disbelief. "See? You've got a lot to come back for, now." Lincoln said, and Olivia nodded.

"I had a lot to come back to before." She murmured, and grabbed Lincoln's hand and squeezed it. "Take care of him for me."

"I will." Lincoln said, and he found that he was unable to look at her. He hated goodbyes.

"Hey," Olivia said, moving back into his line of vision, forcing him to make eye contact with her, "This isn't goodbye. I swear. I'll find a way to let you know I'm okay."

"Liv…" Lincoln said quietly, sounding so much like he had the night Henry was born. He was both protesting her leaving and pleading with her in the same syllable. "Just… be careful. Please." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

She nodded and straightened up, and he could have sworn that he saw tears in her eyes. She looked at him one last time before leaning in to kiss Henry, and then she was gone.

"You have to come back." He whispered at the door after it closed, and shut his eyes briefly. His attention returned to Henry after a minute, and he picked him up, cradling him in his arms. "It's just you and me, little man."

Henry let out a little noise, and Lincoln frowned. "I know, I miss her too."

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Alright guys, here it is, chapter two. I want to try and get some more reviews, I want to use input from readers to keep writing this, so tell your Fringe!friends, haha. Nothing more to say to really preface this, so I'll respond to the reviews that I did get, and then leave you to read the next chapter.

**Jill Cohen: **I'm assuming that Henry is only a few months old or not even that on the show, but I thought it would be interesting if he showed a little bit of intelligence at a very young age, it seems like such a Fringe thing to happen haha.

**Fallen Heart: **Thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy the story! x

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><p>It had been four days since he'd seen or heard from Olivia, and he was slowly losing patience. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, and he could barely do his job because he was so sick with worrying about her. Either she made it there and just couldn't find a way to contact him, or… <em>No<em>, he told himself, _don't think like that_.

He was confident in Olivia's abilities. He knew that she was just about the best agent that Fringe division had ever seen, but there were so many variables involved this time. He didn't know what to think, so he took to distracting himself every single day. He talked with Charlie about nothing in particular. Charlie also knew what Olivia was up to, but as for the rest of the division, they all thought that Olivia had taken some time off to take care of Henry.

Charlie was worried too, Lincoln could tell, but he was grateful that Charlie never brought it up. If he did, and if Lincoln was forced to think about it more than he already was, he was sure that he would go crazy.

Lincoln didn't want anyone to start suspecting anything, so instead of staying with Henry at Olivia's apartment, he moved the baby and most of the baby stuff to his apartment. It was weird, sharing the space that he had always been alone in, especially when he was sharing it with a baby. But in more ways than one, it was much better than being alone. Especially because he didn't think he could have lasted another day in Olivia's house. There were too many reminders of her, and in this uncertain situation, he couldn't sit there and act like he was just waiting for her to come home.

It was the end of the work day, and as he had the last few days, he went to Marilyn's house to pick up Henry. He made sure no one was following him as he parked in front, and went to the front door, which opened before he even got there.

"Hi, Marilyn."

"Lincoln. You sound tired." She said, and greeted him with a hug. He was a little surprised when she had first started to do this, but he realized that she probably couldn't thank him for what he was doing with words, so she chose to show her affection in a different way. "Any word yet?" She asked hopefully, and Lincoln really hated to put a disappointed look on her face. She didn't know exactly what Olivia was up to, not the full extent anyway, but Olivia had told her that she was going on a solo mission, and that's why Lincoln was taking care of Henry.

"No." He said quietly, "Not yet."

"Lincoln… is there something you're not telling me? That Olivia didn't tell me?" She asked him, and Lincoln's eyes met hers.

"Mrs. Dunham…. I can't tell you anything, I'm sorry. It's classified. I promise though, when I hear from Olivia, you'll be the first person I tell."

"I trust you, Agent Lee." She said, but Lincoln didn't miss that she had stopped calling him by his first name. He inwardly cringed when she turned around and walked away without another word, leaving him standing in the doorway.

He shut the door behind him and followed her to the living room, where he could hear the TV was on with some kind of kid's show playing. Henry was on the floor, on a blanket, and seemed to be enthralled with whatever was on. Lincoln kneeled down next to him, "Hey there, little man, were you good for Grandma today?" Lincoln ruffled the boy's hair, and looked towards Marilyn.

"He was fine today, slept most of the day. He'll probably be hungry once you get him home." She was watching them warily, and Lincoln was nervous that he had lost her trust, despite what she had said to him minutes before.

"Look, Marilyn, I'm really sorry that I can't tell you anything. You have to trust me when I tell you that if I thought Liv was in danger, I wouldn't be here. I would be with her, making sure she was safe." He wasn't sure what possessed him to say this to her, but he needed her to know.

She looked at him with something like wonderment in her eyes. "You love her, don't you." It wasn't a question, and Lincoln looked at the floor.

"I have for a long time, ma'am." He said honestly, picking up Henry and bouncing the baby up and down on his hip a few times. "I… I told her. The night Henry was born. I doubt she feels the same way, but she deserved to know. After everything she went through… it's better that she knows."

"I don't doubt that she feels something for you either, Lincoln." Marilyn said, and Lincoln felt hope swelling up in his chest. After all, who knew Olivia better than her own mother? "She's just afraid to say anything. The two of you are close friends, and coworkers. I don't think she'd want to do anything to jeopardize that."

"Neither do I." Lincoln said, unconsciously rubbing the baby's back as he started to whimper. "I think you were right, this one seems hungry."

"You're going to make a wonderful father someday." Marilyn said, out of the blue, and Lincoln froze before a small smile took over his face as he looked down at the small child in his arms.

"I hope so."

Getting back to Lincoln's apartment had been tricky. The baby had cried the minute he was put into the car seat, and continued to cry the entire drive home. Lincoln could feel a headache coming on, and it was taking everything he had not to be stressed.

Once he and Henry were inside, he changed Henry's diaper and got him some cheerios to calm him down before he could get a bottle and warm his formula. While he fed the baby, his earpiece went off and he pressed it reluctantly. "Yeah?"

"Lincoln." Olivia's voice sounded, and he froze. "Don't say anything, just listen. They caught me trying to cross over. I had to knock Brandon out and they locked me up."

"Liv-"

"No! Listen. They've got me in a cell on Liberty Island. I can't figure out how to get out of here, but we need to do something, Lincoln, the Secretary turned that machine on and we have to stop it. Promise me you'll try to stop him."

"Olivia," Lincoln started, trying to calm her down, while at the same time wanting to hear her voice for as long as he could.

"I have to go, I knocked out the guard and used his phone and…." She trailed off, "Someone's coming. Lincoln… Liberty Island. Just remember-"

The line went dead.

"Olivia. Olivia?" Lincoln asked repeatedly, and Henry fussed in his arms. "Liberty Island." He said out loud, and got on his earpiece to call Charlie.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hi everyone! Okay, so I take it that most people have seen The Last Sam Weiss, but for the purpose of this fic, we're going to disregard that episode. So basically this fic is going AU up to this point. I've decided to do this one a little differently, it's going to be mostly from Olivia's point of view. Thanks so much for reading this and replying, I have a lot of people who are following this story, but not so many who are reviewing, so please stop by and say hello if you are!

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><p>She opened her eyes, and it's dark. She immediately is on edge, and she feels like she might be bleeding. Her head, she makes the assessment, has suffered some trauma. She feels like a medic, going over everything she can feel at the moment.<p>

She doesn't remember much about what happened to her, except that one minute she was talking to Lincoln, and the next, it was all dark. She hopes that wherever she is, he can find her. If she has a head injury then there's no way she can get out of here on her own. Although, she's not sure how Lincoln would even begin to try to get her out of here, not when the Secretary probably doesn't want her anywhere but right where he can keep an eye on her.

She's not thinking for long when the light switches on, and she slams her eyes shut, due to the pain in her head. When she slowly opens them a bit, she sees that she's in a holding cell similar to the one she had been in earlier. She notices that there is no window on this cell. Solitary confinement.

The door opens and the Secretary comes in. She feels a wave of nausea pass over her because he looks furious, and she really doesn't know what he's capable of. She doesn't say anything, just stares at him as he stands in the doorway. "You're injured." He states, and she blinks, still not saying anything, "That was not supposed to happen. Do you remember the guard who did this to you?"

She's frowning. She was the one who lured a guard over to her in the cell, knocked him out, placed a call on his phone and then tried to fight him off when he came back, and now the Secretary wanted _his_ name so he could be punished? "I can't remember." She lies, and he looks at her as though he's trying to see right through her.

"Captain Lee is here. He says that your Mother has been trying to reach you because Henry is ill. I am going to let you leave here with him only on the assumption that you are going to be caring for my Grandson, and nothing else."

_Screw the fact that he's your Grandson, he's my son. _She wanted to yell at him, but she refrained. Lincoln was here. She was sick to her stomach with the fact that Lincoln had to lie to Bishop just to get her out of here. If he ever got found out… she shuddered at the thought of what the Secretary would do if he knew that not one, but two Fringe agents, one of them the Captain of the entire division, were plotting against him and his ideals for this world.

She didn't have time to think before Lincoln was in the doorway with the Secretary, and he looked so concerned, and she wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she knows that this needs to remain professional. She sees his eyes flicker to her forehead, where she knows she is bleeding, and his eyes darken. She wants to tell him that she's okay, that she just wants to get out of here, but the Secretary addresses her once more.

"I am under the impression that you do not approve of the lengths I am going to, to protect our universe. I am sorry that you feel this way, Agent Dunham, but I can't stop something that has already begun."

Olivia opens her mouth to speak, but she sees Lincoln hold up a hand behind the Secretary and knows that he doesn't want her to get into any more trouble, that he just wants her to come home and she stops what she was going to say before the words can get off her tongue.

"It has come to my knowledge that tonight you were attempting to cross over. While I cannot pretend that I know your intentions for doing so, I must say that while I feel a bit betrayed by you, I must applaud your bravery."

Olivia's eyebrows shoot up and she honestly can't believe what she is hearing, "On the other hand, I must insist that you are under surveillance. For now, I am taking you off of active duty."

"Sir-" Olivia started, but she was cut off.

"This is for the best, Agent Dunham. I'm not sure what you thought going to the other side would accomplish, but those people cannot be trusted, and I will not have you endangering your life, or our world's vitality. It is my thought that if you were to be at work, you would have access to everything you needed to continue your private mission. That will not happen." His voice was stern, "Captain Lee is going to take you home to your son. You are not to go back to work until you are reinstated, is that clear?"

Olivia couldn't do anything but nod. She struggled to get to her feet, and Lincoln brushed by the Secretary to help her. His touch on her arm soothed her a bit, and she tried not to think about what was going to happen to her now that she couldn't go to work. Not only could she not support her child, but he was right. She had been planning to look over some old mission files and see what she could do to try and stop the events that were taking place on the other side.

Lincoln's hand was on the small of her back now, and he was guiding her out of the room. Mr. Bishop had already left, and she was silent, afraid to say anything to Lincoln in case someone was listening. He seemed to be doing the same thing, and neither one of them spoke until they got to the car.

He held open the door, and she got in, breathing a sigh of relief to not be in that holding cell anymore. She wanted to get off Liberty Island, and she wanted to get out of there right now.

Lincoln got into the car, and before she could speak, he was talking. "I called Charlie and he's already doing research. You don't have to worry about not being able to fix this."

"I can't go to work." She said numbly.

"It's going to be okay. I don't know what we can do, but I'm going to try to stop this. I swear, Liv. If you want to help the other side, if that's what you really want, then I am going to help you do it. Even if it costs me my job."

She stared at him for a long while. "I failed." She said miserably, and his hand rested on her knee. "I failed. I couldn't do anything. I was caught straight away."

"Stop." He demanded, "You didn't fail. Olivia, you tried. You tried, and we're going to fix this." He was quiet before reaching up to touch her hairline. "You're bleeding. Are you okay?"

"I think… I think the guard hit me."

Lincoln's eyes darkened, "The Secretary had the right idea on that one. I want his name." He spat out, and Olivia winced at the venom lacing his words.

"We didn't exactly exchange pleasantries…" She said, and Lincoln's gaze softened.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could have gotten there sooner, I wish… I wish you would have let me go with you."

"Are you kidding? Linc, if you would have come with me, he wouldn't trust either of us. We would have been in there forever. And Henry…" She trailed off, "Henry. Lincoln, where is Henry?" She asked frantically.

"He's with your Mom, just calm down. We'll go pick him up right now. And then I'm taking you to the infirmary. You need to get your head looked at."

"You don't have-"

"Yes I do. Olivia… let me take care of you." Lincoln said, and Olivia could tell from the tone of his voice that he was still shaken up. They were going to have to talk about this later. The only thing she could think about was getting her son and going home to sleep.

"Stay tonight." She whispered, and Lincoln stared intently at her before uttering words that she hadn't heard in weeks since Henry was born.

"There's no place else for me to be." He said, and when she looked into his eyes, she knew that they were going to find a way to fix everything she had made a mess of. She trusted him completely.

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><p>It's not over yet! More to come soon, and possibly more fluff in the near future! Please review if you've read, please and thank you. x<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Okay guys, thank you for the reviews on the last chapter! To be honest, I wasn't very happy with it, because I feel like it was a big twist in events and didn't really play out the way I wanted. So, basically, this fiction is incredibly AU now. But I appreciate all your comments, and if you liked it, then I'm a happy camper! Hopefully with the addition of this chapter, everything will start to make more sense now. So, onwards we go!

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><p>Lincoln was sitting on Olivia's couch, where he had spent the last couple nights, and was watching her as she paced around the room. "You're going to drive yourself crazy," he said, moving to sit on the edge of the sofa.<p>

She shot him a glare, which he tried not to take personally. Things between them lately had been strained, to say the least. He understood that she was upset about the situation going on with her job, and how she was being treated by the Secretary, but she was taking it out on him sometimes, and it was getting harder for him to act like it didn't hurt.

"I can't just sit here, Lincoln," She snapped, "I just keep thinking about over there… they have no way to protect themselves from what is happening."

Finally, Lincoln decided to just speak his mind. "Is this all because Peter is over there? Is that the only reason you're doing this? Why you tried to cross over?"

Her eyes flashed, and he got to his feet, preparing for her to hit him, or yell at him or something. "Obviously he plays a role in this, Lincoln. You know that."

"I'm not asking you if you're doing this because you think he can help. I'm asking you if you're doing this _for_ him. Because if you don't do anything, he could die."

"We could all die!" She yelled, and he flinched, "I'm doing this because the world as we know it could end. If we don't do something, if we don't reach some sort of compromise… look." She moved closer to him and took his hand in hers, an action that succeeded in calming him down slightly, "If they can't turn off the machine, their world will be destroyed. I don't care how we're supposed to hate them, but I was over there, I've worked with those people… and I can't condone the killing of millions of innocent people. But if they find a way to shut off the machine, or reverse it or something… we could die, Lincoln." He sucked in a breath as she looked at him, her green eyes brimming with tears.

"Liv…" He tried to think of something to say, something that would convince her that everything would be okay. He couldn't think of anything. It was such a fragile situation. If he showed any sympathy towards the other side, he would lose his job. Olivia probably would too, as she was already on the Secretary's watch. "I wish I could do something." He whispered, and she looked down.

"I'm sorry for being so… angry lately." She said. Lincoln gripped her hand tighter, and wrapped his free arm around her waist.

"It's fine. I just… you need someone to talk to. I want to be the one you talk to." He said, and she looked up at him again and he swore he could have spent forever looking into her eyes.

"If you keep staying the night here, you're going to get in trouble." Olivia said, not able to look away from him.

"I don't care." Lincoln said, and he was being honest. He would give up his job a million times over if it meant he could spend the rest of his life with her. He sounded cliché and sappy, but he didn't care. He wanted to laugh, actually. He never thought he'd be one of those guys who waxed poetic over some girl. But then again, he always knew that she was never just some girl.

She made a face at him, and he chuckled, loving how simple it was to just _be_ with her. He had always felt happier when he was around her. "I just don't want you to lose your job or anything…"

"Look, I don't care what the Secretary thinks of me anymore. He kept you locked up in there for almost a week, Liv. That's not okay. But you need to be more careful now, okay?"

"He's not going to reinstate me until whatever he wants to happen over there happens. I feel so helpless…" She put her head down until her forehead was touching his chest and he pulled her closer.

"I've never been so amazed by someone in my life." He said quietly, and before she could say anything, he continued, "You've been through more as a Fringe agent than I ever have, ever. I hate the thought that you had to go through all of that on your own, but you still did it. And now… now you're sticking up for people just because you care that much for the human race… I can't tell you how amazing you are." He finished, and to be honest, he felt like he hadn't even scratched the surface when it came to telling her how much she meant to him.

She didn't say anything, but instead, leaned towards him and gently kissed him. He felt like she was holding back, and wished she wouldn't. He wanted her to pour her soul out to him like he had done to her. He wanted her to really feel how he felt. "Liv," He said softly, and pulled away.

"What? Is something wrong? Do you… do you not want this anymore?" She gestured between the two of them.

"God, Olivia, of course I want this. I just… I need to make sure that this is what you want. I need to make sure that you're not doing this for Peter, because I don't think I could take it."

Olivia recoiled from him, "Why do you keep bringing him into this?"

"Because obviously he plays a role, you said it yourself, Liv! I just feel like you're not _with_ me."

"That doesn't make any sense." Olivia said, but inside, she felt awful. She felt awful because Lincoln had told her, multiple times, that he loved her, and she wasn't so sure how to respond to that. She did it the only way she knew how, by showing him, not telling him.

"When I kiss you, I just feel like you're not all there. I know you had feelings for him at one point, Liv." He said softly, without accusation, "Henry is proof of that. I told you that I love you, and I love Henry too, and I'm going to do everything I can to make the two of you safe, but please don't touch me and hold me and kiss me if you don't mean it." His voice cracked and he let go of her hand, and she frowned.

"Lincoln…"

"I'm sorry Liv. I know you're going through stuff right now, but so am I, and I just… I just want you so much and it's not fair to either of us. If I push this relationship on you, it's not fair. But if you just go along with it because it makes you feel… comfortable… then it's not fair for me either."

"Lincoln. Stop, please. I… I can't tell you that I love you." Lincoln's face fell, and Olivia hated herself, "But I know that I have feelings for you. They've probably been there for a long time, I just ignored them before."

He shook his head as though he didn't want to believe her, "Olivia…"

"I swear, Lincoln, I can't forget everything you're doing for me. And you're right; I do feel more comfortable and more safe, and happier around you. I think I could love you. And I'm going to try to do that." She said, and Lincoln heard the conviction in her voice, heard the determination with which she spoke, and it made his heart ache.

He didn't say a word, but instead swept her up in his arms again and proceeded to kiss her with a passion he didn't know he had. It was years of sexual tension and longing wrapped up into a seemingly endless series of kisses, and he felt her melt into him and wrap her arms around his neck. She might not love him (_yet_, a little voice in his head said), but he knew she felt _something_ in this kiss, and that was really all that mattered to him.

The broke apart for air at the same time that Henry started whimpering from the bedroom. They both moved at once, and laughed as they realized they were both so accustomed to taking care of him that they forgot that really only one person needed to do it. Lincoln made a motion that said he would take care of it, and Olivia sat down on the couch, unable to take the smile off her face.

The smile only increased when she could hear Lincoln softly singing to Henry, some song he had no doubt made up, and watched him as he brought Henry out into the living room. There was something about him holding her son in his arms that just looked so _right_, and for a minute, she thought she might be wanting him almost as much as he wanted her.

Apparently his earpiece had gone off, because he handed Henry to her and pressed a hand to his ear. "This is Agent Lee." He said stiffly, and froze in his spot, "Okay, I'll be right there." He pressed it once more, and looked at her, all traces of the intimate moment they had shared earlier gone. "That was Charlie. Astrid found something, and I have to go take a look at it before the Secretary finds out what they were up to. They think he's monitoring the computers."

"Wait," Olivia said, causing him to turn around before he got to the door, "Is it something with the machine?" She asked, and Lincoln's face turned grave, and he didn't answer her. "Lincoln." She said again, demanding an answer.

"Something happened to the one on the other side… it's been moved or… something's happening to it." He said. "I really have to go Liv, but I'll be back tonight… if that's okay?"

"Of course," Olivia said quickly, "Just… be careful, okay?"

Lincoln looked as though he wanted to kiss her again, but he didn't. He just smiled softly at her and touched Henry's face quickly before going out the door, shutting it behind him.

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><p><em>What do we think? Better? Review, please!<em>


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Sorry it's taken me so long to get this update finished! I thought I would have more time to write now that school is over, but my brother plays baseball so I'm at games all the time, and on top of that, Mother's Day took up almost the entire day today! But here we are, and I'm assuming most of us have seen the S3 finale by now… and wow. Just wow. But, this fic is AU, so again, we're disregarding everything that's happened after 6:02AM EST. So, here we go, the next installment of _Keep Calm and Carry On.  
><em>

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><p>Lincoln had arrived to Fringe Headquarters exactly 10 minutes after he left Olivia's apartment. He sped there, and was sure he had blown a few red lights, but the chances that the Secretary could find out what they were doing far outweighed any risk he felt by breaking laws on the road. He was breaking enough rules as it was. He stormed into the building and noticed that there weren't many people there. The people who were there, though, got out of his way as soon as they noticed him coming through, and if he weren't in such a hurry, he knew it would have gone straight to his ego.<p>

Charlie was waiting for him at the end of the hallway. "You're going to want to see this." He said, and pulled Lincoln through the door over to the computers where Astrid was standing, looking worried. "Go ahead, tell him." Charlie said, and Lincoln tried not to look frustrated that someone hadn't just said something as soon as they saw him.

"Sir," Astrid started, taking a deep breath, "there is a 98% chance that they're going to put Peter Bishop into the machine. Tonight." She said, and Lincoln's eyes widened.

"Excuse me? What do you mean, put him in there?"

"The machine… we're not sure what it does." Charlie explained, "but Astrid is sure that Peter Bishop is a key element to how it works, and we think that the other side has realized that too."

"So what, the Secretary turned the machine on over there?"

"Yes," Astrid said, "He used the one here to turn the one on over there. They should be experiencing Fringe events unlike anything that they are prepared to deal with."

"Olivia should be here… she's been over there, she would know…" Lincoln said, but trailed off when he remembered that she was off active duty. "What do we have to do?" He asked, and Charlie looked confused.

"What do we have to do? What are you talking about?"

"To turn the machine off!" Lincoln said, "What do we have to do to get it to shut off? Before they get Bishop in there?"

"Sir," Astrid interrupted, "I don't think there's anything we can do. The machine is protected by itself. It won't let anyone in, not even Peter if he doesn't do it right."

"What do you mean?"

Astrid looked at Charlie, who nodded, "We found these." She said, and handed Lincoln what looked like blueprints. One was of the machine, and the other… he almost dropped them on the ground. Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham were on these blueprints, and they were so graphic and disturbing that he didn't even want to look at them.

"I don't understand." He said quietly, and Charlie touched a hand to his shoulder.

"We think that their Olivia and Peter are supposed to work together to either shut their machine off, or use it somehow. If they do this, it could destroy our side, Linc."

Lincoln sucked in a deep breath. "Okay. So… we need to communicate. We need to… do something." He said, trying his hardest to think of a solution. "We need to find a way to tell them that they can't get in that machine. We need to reach a compromise."

"What about the Secretary?" Charlie asked, looking concerned, and Lincoln shrugged.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. We need to talk to Liv, she can help us. She's not on active duty right now, and I know her ID won't work to let her into the building. We need to go to her house."

"Sir… I think I should stay here to monitor the equipment. I can let you know if there are any changes." Astrid said, and Charlie agreed.

"I'll go and see if I can find anything more out about the machine. I'll keep monitoring Liberty Island for any more power surges." Charlie said, and Lincoln nodded once before spinning on his heel and heading for the door.

Olivia heard the locks turning in her front door and got up from the couch, a piece of toast in her hand. She finished chewing right as Lincoln burst through the door, looking worried and frustrated. "What's going on?" She asked immediately, and he sat down on the couch, putting his head in his hands.

"I don't know what to do… Liv, the machine is on over there. And Astrid has run some statistics and things could get very bad for us if we don't do something."

Olivia wanted to throw up. "What do we need to do?" She asked firmly, and Lincoln looked at her, distress and confusion written all over his face.

"I don't know." He said quietly, his voice cracking, "I'm supposed to be the leader and I have no idea what to do to protect you or anyone else."

"Hey, stop it." Olivia said, putting a hand on the back of his neck, "We're going to figure this out. We can't… we can't let them interact with the machine. I have a bad feeling about it."

"Astrid does too. Look, I don't know how, but we need to find a way to get word to them… if they'll even trust us in the first place." Lincoln said, and the first thing that popped into Olivia's mind was the typewriter. She had used it when she was over there, but she had no idea where the one from her universe was, and it would take too long to find it.

She steeled herself when she realized there was only one option, and she didn't know how well Lincoln was going to take it. "Lincoln, I need to cross over." She said, and his head shot up.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Lincoln, it's the only way!"

"And just how are you going to do this, huh?" He asked her, "Go back to Liberty Island where the Secretary is sure to have people looking out for you?"

"It's the only way Lincoln, we have to try!"

"I'm not letting you do this again, absolutely not. That's an order, Olivia." He said, and Olivia glared at him.

"In case you've forgotten, _sir_, I am not on active duty. You can't give me orders." She said, and stood up to reach for her coat. "I'm taking Henry to my Mother's and then I'm going to Liberty Island."

"Olivia." Lincoln warned, "Sit down."

"No, Lincoln. I have to do this. We have to do this. I don't care if you want to stay here, but if you want to come with me, then you better make your mind up because I'm leaving right now."

Lincoln wanted to scream, he wanted to throw something. Why wasn't she listening to him? He was scared, so scared that he was going to lose her. He almost did once and he didn't want to go through that pain again. To feel her slipping away through his fingers was the worst thing he could have imagined and he didn't know how he would handle it if it happened again. He took a deep breath. "I'll go with you. We need to tell Charlie."

Olivia looked at him, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards in a smile, "Thank you, Linc."

"Don't thank me, we haven't done anything yet. You can thank me after I save your life a couple more times." He smirked, and laughed when she punched him in the arm.

"We need to go tell Charlie and Astrid, and then get the hell out of there as fast as we can, okay? Get Henry and his stuff and we'll take him to your Mom's. I'm going to make sure there's a security team there for as long as we're gone." Lincoln was rambling more to himself than he was to her, making plans, and Olivia couldn't help but pull his face towards hers and kiss him. Hard.

"If you weren't here to look out for me, I don't know what I'd do." She said breathlessly after they broke apart, and Lincoln smiled at her, unable to believe that he was as lucky as he was.

He took her hand, "Let's go." He said, and the two gathered up the baby and his belongings before walking out of Olivia's apartment hand in hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **_Sorry for such a long wait between chapters! I haven't been feeling particularly creative lately, haha. Hopefully this chapter will be okay. For the record, since this is AU, most of the technical things that happen in this chapter I am making up on the spot. So I'm not basing it on anything from the show, really. Also, something that AltLiv does in this chapter is completely made up too, because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen on the show at all. But I don't want to spoil you, so I'll leave it at that. I'm not that good at writing conflict or action, but I'll give it a go! This one is a long one! Please leave me reviews after you read, they really do help. x_

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><p>Lincoln was jumpy as he and Olivia slowly made their way through the maze that was the Department of Defense. He had a hand on her lower back, the other was firmly placed on his gun. He knew she was doing the same, while simultaneously looking for any cameras or motion detectors in the area. He had been astounded when they first got to Liberty Island at the lack of security. The few people they had passed had been easy enough to get out of the way, or to threaten. He had a feeling that most of the people working for the Secretary weren't sure that they were doing the right thing, either.<p>

"There." Olivia's voice sounded, clear and determined through the anxiety-ridden air that threatened to consume them both, "that's where the canisters are." She said, and Lincoln followed her gaze to a case that was on a table behind a locked door.

"How do we get in there?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"I think you have to have ID to get in, but don't use yours. They'll know we've been here." She said calmly, and Lincoln resisted the urge to roll his eyes. She was talking to him like he was a rookie, like she was briefing him on protocol for the first time, and he knew that it was the only way that she could distance herself from the fear she was feeling at being caught, but he still found it mildly irritating. He was tense too, though, and didn't know how else to express it, so he just kept it inside.

"Okay, so since that's clearly not an option, what do we do now?"

Olivia bit her lip, and if Lincoln was being honest, he only felt a little bit guilty for wanting to kiss her right then. "I feel like if we break the glass, the alarms are going to go off. We can't shoot the door open… wait." She said, and he saw her eyes light up the way that they did when she got an idea.

She shut her eyes, and Lincoln wasn't sure what was happening. He didn't know what she was thinking, so he just stood there and let her think, or do whatever else it was that she was doing. He was not prepared, however, for the keys on the keypad to start clicking. He was about to say something to Olivia, but when he looked over, he saw her face screwed up in concentration, and he froze. Something inside of him knew, deep down, that she was doing this. He didn't know how, and he mentally kicked himself for thinking that for a second, maybe this wasn't his Olivia at all.

She opened her eyes once the sequence was completed, and she looked out of breath. Lincoln put a hand on her arm, and stared at her, in awe. "Was that… did you…?" He asked slowly, not able to wrap his mind around what had just happened.

She looked at him, and smiled softly, "When I was over there, on the other side, their Walter kept telling me all the time about my "abilities" and how I just needed to learn how to control them. I didn't know what he was talking about, but I read a case file… their Olivia diffused a bomb with her mind once." He said, and Lincoln openly gaped at her, "I never thought… I mean, technically we're the same person, right? It was a long shot, but I didn't think…" She trailed off, and Lincoln nodded.

"You didn't know if you could do it yourself." He finished for her, and she nodded.

"Their Olivia was used in drug trials when she was younger, that's why she has the abilities that she has. Their Walter was the one testing on her."

Lincoln frowned, "But how can you do it too if you've…" He trailed off and shook his head, "You know what? It doesn't matter. Let's just get in there and get this over with before we get caught."

Olivia followed him into the small lab and took the canisters out of their case. "You need to press and hold this the entire time, okay? This other one is to get back. Put it in your pocket."

Lincoln felt nauseas and his hands were a little shaky as he took one from her to put in his pocket. "How do we… how can we guarantee we're going to get to the same place?"

"They're pre-programmed." Olivia answered, "These ones are going to… China Town." She said, and Lincoln couldn't help it, he grinned at her.

"We have good luck there." He said, and she smirked.

"Let's just get this over with before we…" Olivia trailed off as lights started flashing and a siren sounded, "… trip the alarm." She finished and looked at Lincoln, who had grabbed her hand instinctively and he looked at her in panic.

"Just do it, whatever you have to do to turn it on, hurry up, do it." He said, and she nodded, before fiddling with a few buttons. The canisters started to beep, almost like they were detonating, and the next thing Lincoln knew, there was a bright flash of light, and then nothing. He didn't feel anything, except for Olivia's vice grip on his hand. He felt like he was being pulled in thirty different directions, but he didn't for one second try to understand it all, because he knew it would just make him even more confused.

He realized that his eyes were closed, and he didn't feel like he was spinning anymore. He opened his eyes slowly to see Olivia standing over him, a concerned look on her face. "Linc?" She asked worriedly, and he tried to smile at her, but he was too dizzy to do anything.

"What…"

"It's okay, we're fine. And we made it, we're here." She said, and Lincoln stood with her help, before looking around at a city that he felt like he knew, but wasn't quite the same.

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><p>"Where exactly are we going?" He asked her as she fiddled with an ATM machine. He hadn't seen one of these in years, and was surprised that she even knew how to work it, "And how are you getting money out of there?"<p>

"When I was here on my mission they gave me a card to use in case of an emergency, if I had to leave town or something. I kept it. I thought it would have been deactivated, but it hasn't. There's money left on it, and we're going to use it to get to Boston."

Lincoln had been momentarily distracted by a flash of blonde coming out of a building across the street from them. Someone had reminded him of Olivia when he first met her, before she dyed her hair. "Olivia…" He started, when he realized he was staring at a mirror image of the woman he was in love with.

"We have to go to Boston because that's where their lab is."

"No… I don't think we need to go to Boston."

"Lincoln, trust me."

Lincoln grabbed Olivia's shoulders and forced her to turn around. "We don't need to go to Boston." He said, pointing in the direction of the other Olivia. His Olivia gasped and turned back around, pulling up the hood on her sweatshirt.

"Okay… okay. I don't… we still need money, and… just make sure that… she didn't see us, did she?" Olivia asked, and her voice was shaky. Lincoln put a hand on her back in reassurance.

"No, I don't think so. Doubt she'd be standing over there if she did." He said, "Okay let's just figure this out. What are they doing here?" He asked, and Olivia whipped around.

"What do you mean, they?"

"There was man with her… what is your problem?" He asked, as Olivia's eyes were wide and looking in every direction, trying to spot the people that Lincoln had been talking about. Suddenly, he realized who the man was. Somehow the knowledge that he had caused such a reaction in Liv made it feel like something was wrapping around his heart and squeezing .

"I… nothing. It's nothing. Um, we should… we should find them." She said, and Lincoln grabbed her elbow as she started to walk away.

"Liv… Are you sure about this?" His eyes were full of concern for her, and Olivia relished in the fact that this time, someone cared about her. This time she had crossed over to do good for the world, and someone who loved her was with her, caring about her safety.

She stepped closer to him and cupped his face in her hands. "You have to trust me." She said quietly, and Lincoln leaned into her touch, his hands finding her hips and pulling her closer to him.

"Always." He said, and he grabbed her hand once more. "If you're sure, let's go."

She walked with him down the street, tailing the blonde agent closely, but not close enough to where anyone would get suspicious. "Liv, they're leaving. They're going to get in that car." Lincoln said, pointing to an SUV parked on the curb outside the Massive Dynamic building.

"We can't let them leave yet." Olivia said, and she took off down the sidewalk, leaving Lincoln to sprint after her, his heart pounding at the thought that they would see her and do something rash before he got there to protect her.

"Liv, wait!" He yelled, and when he did, this caught the other Olivia's attention. She turned around, to see a red-haired version of herself running towards her, with the other universe's Lincoln close behind. She recognized him instantly, flashes of memories in her head. Without thinking, she pulled her gun, which was enough to get Peter's attention.

"Wait, please wait." Liv had caught up to Olivia and Peter and was standing on the sidewalk, her hands up in defeat, "Please, just listen to me."

Lincoln caught up to her and took a step in front of her, putting his hands in the air as well. He looked Peter Bishop up and down, and saw the anger in his eyes. "We want to help, we're not here on orders." Lincoln said calmly, noticing that the other Olivia had yet to put her gun down. He spoke to her, "Look, I know you have no reason to trust us, but please. Just let us explain. Please, Olivia." He said, and Olivia faltered, lowering her gun a little at the use of her name coming out of Lincoln's mouth.

"Olivia." Peter said, and Lincoln's eyes flashed at him, daring him to try and say a word. Lincoln's hands were still in the air, but he was very aware of where his gun was strapped to his leg.

"Let's not cause a scene." Said a softer voice, and Lincoln saw Walter Bishop. A different Walter Bishop than the one he was used to dealing with.

"We have no reason to trust these people, Walter." Olivia said calmly, never taking her eyes off of Liv.

"I know you don't," Liv interrupted her, "And I'm aware of the damage I've caused. Not just to this universe, but to you and Peter. I know that. I just want to try and fix things. I can't let the Secretary get away with killing millions of people in this universe just to satisfy himself. My conscious won't let me, and I just… I'm sorry."

Olivia looked torn. She looked up at Peter and put her gun back in it's holster. "You better come with us before someone sees you." Before Lincoln and Liv could climb in the SUV after them, Peter turned to them both.

"And you better not be lying, or there'll be hell to pay." He said, and Lincoln's hand immediately clutched onto Liv's out of protectiveness.

Peter's glance darted at their joined hands and he looked back at Lincoln, a strange look in his eyes before turning back around to face forward.

"We just want to help." Lincoln said quietly, "And if you don't let us, there's a good chance that both the universes will be destroyed."

Olivia's eyes met his in the rearview mirror, and he spoke to her, "I know you were on our side. I know I worked with you. You might not remember all of it, but I know you were _you_ for some of it." He said, and Peter turned back around to face him.

"Look, I don't know what you're playing at, but don' talk to her, okay?" He said angrily, and Lincoln's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me for trying to gain some trust. Because despite everything that's happened, you and I have never met. You don't see me pulling my gun on you, even though for all I know, you're trying to destroy my world and keep yours safe. That's what I was trying to do too, okay? I realize now that we're in over our heads. All of us are. The only way we're going to get anything fixed is if we try to work together."

Peter rolled his eyes and turned back around, but Lincoln kept talking, "And for your information, Charlie and I didn't know that your Olivia had gotten switched with ours and brainwashed, okay? We were tricked just like you were."

Liv flinched next to him, and he knew that she didn't want to have to remember what she had done to Peter. He understood that it was bringing back bad memories for her, but he felt like it was the only way that he was going to gain Peter's trust. He gripped her hand tighter and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb in a soothing motion. He felt her relax and lean into him a bit, and he was thankful that she hadn't tried to pull away yet.

He continued to talk to Peter, "I would have never knowingly kidnapped Olivia. If I had known what was going on, I would have spoken to the Secretary about it. We're already breaking a million rules by being here. He doesn't know about it, and when Liv tried to cross over a little more than a week ago, he held her captive at headquarters, so don't just assume we're doing this for our own benefit." Lincoln finished, a bitter tone to his voice.

Olivia spoke while driving. "You're right. I have no reason to doubt your intentions. Just hers." She said, and Liv flinched again. "I'm sorry, but after what you did to me before…" Olivia trailed off and Lincoln saw Peter grab her hand in the front seat, "I'm not just going to forgive you. I might have taken your place for a while, but I didn't do it knowingly. I didn't do it out of my own free will. That's the difference between you and I."

Liv just nodded in the backseat, even though she knew Olivia probably wasn't looking at her. She knew Lincoln was, and out of the corner of her eye she could feel Peter's eyes on her as well.

The ride was silent for a few seconds before Walter spoke up from where he was wedged in the backseat next to Lincoln, "Well this is all very strange, isn't it!"

Lincoln looked at the man next to him, and Walter smiled at him. Lincoln realized that it was the first time he had ever seen Walter Bishop smile in his life. Somehow, that solidified the need to do what they were doing. And he was going to see to it that it got done.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **_Alright, so here we are. Just to answer a review, I am super excited that Seth Gabel has been promoted to a regular! This is literally the best news I've heard in a long time. He really deserves it. As far as this fic goes, I think it'll be coming to an end soon, unless I can come up with a plot twist to keep it going ;) Also, just for clarity's sake, Alt!Liv is going to be called "Liv" probably from now on, unless referred to as "Olivia" by Lincoln or someone else. Otherwise ~our Olivia will be called Olivia. Sorry if that confused anyone in the last chapter. Nothing else to say about this really, but enjoy!_

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><p>The ride back to Boston was silent for the most part. The tension in the air was very high, although every now and then Walter would ask a question or try to talk to Lincoln. He was always, however, silenced with a look from Peter in the front seat, who seemed to be fuming the entire time.<p>

Olivia's eyes stayed on the road, but her stance was tense, and Liv could tell that she was the cause. Of course if Liv was in her situation, she would probably feel the same. A wave of remorse washed over her as she thought about how much of the blonde agent's life she had taken from her. She tried to hold it in, but felt like she couldn't breathe, and a lone tear slowly trickled down her cheek. She tried to ignore it and look out the window so no one would see, but she looked up and saw Peter's eyes on her in the rearview mirror. She hardened her gaze quickly, but knew he had seen her vulnerable moment.

The next thing she knew, Lincoln's hand left hers and was on her face, brushing away her tears. She saw Peter look away and her eyes flicked back to Lincoln's. "Okay?" He mouthed, and she shook her head no.

His heart cracked; he had never seen her like this, and hated it. In that moment, he hated Peter Bishop more than he ever had in his life. He knew it wasn't entirely Peter's fault that she felt like this. She had made the decision to do what she did, and Peter thought that she was someone else, but he also knew that being back in Peter's presence was making her feel uncomfortable and hurt. He didn't like it.

Suddenly a crack was overhead, and the car screeched to a halt. Peter and Lincoln uttered expletives at the same time, and Walter immediately leapt out of the car.

"Walter!" Peter yelled, and jumped out of the car.

"What the hell is going on?" Liv asked, and Olivia turned around.

"Dry lightning storms. They've been happening for a few weeks now. These and the vortexes are the Fringe events we're trying to control."

"Olivia…" Lincoln started, addressing the blonde, "if we had known this stuff was going to happen… there had to have been another way." He finished quietly, and Liv squeezed his hand.

"I know you don't want to hear it from me, but I am sorry. If I could change things, I…" Liv started, but trailed off, thinking of her baby boy back with her mother. She wouldn't change that. She needed him, and she loved him more than anything else, but Olivia and Peter didn't need to know about him right now. They had too many other things to deal with.

"We should find Walter." Olivia said, averting her eyes, and getting out of the SUV quickly.

"You okay?" Lincoln asked Liv once they got out as well, and Liv shrugged.

"As okay as I can be, I guess. I feel a lot better knowing you're here." She said honestly, and the two of them jumped when lightning struck nearly 10 feet from them.

"Okay, let's keep moving." Lincoln said, taking charge like he always had done. He and Liv sprinted to where Olivia and Peter were trying to wrangle Walter back to the car. "What's he doing?" Lincoln asked.

Peter rolled his eyes, "He thinks if he puts his ear to the ground he can sense the vibrations and try to predict where the next vortex is going to open up. I think, if he can hear it coming, then it's probably too late to do anything about it."

Lincoln snorted, forgetting for a second that he and Peter did not like each other. They barely knew each other, but they disliked one another.

"Walter, let's just go back to the lab, okay?" Olivia asked, and Walter shrugged and stood up.

"We need to find a way to slow down these storms, and fast. They're going to wipe out the entire country." Walter said, and Peter gave Olivia a look before following his father back to the car.

The rest followed him, and hurried to get out of the area before any more lightning storms popped up. They made it back to Boston in one piece, but Olivia wouldn't let them go that easy. "You two need to stay here." She addressed Lincoln and Liv, and Lincoln opened his mouth to protest, but Olivia shot him down straight away, "Look, I'll already be in enough trouble for bringing you to our lab. For all we know, you're just trying to get more information on us." When Lincoln tried to respond, she held her hand up, "Lincoln! I can't promise you anything right now, okay? I need to talk to my boss. You need to wait here."

She left the two in the back of the SUV and Liv knew that there would be someone outside monitoring the vehicle in case they tried to leave. Peter had made sure of that, before he went inside the lab with Walter. "Maybe this was a bad idea." She said quietly, and Lincoln had to remind himself that this was her idea. He had never seen her like this, so quiet and unsure of herself. She was really vulnerable, and that made him want to succeed in whatever they were doing so much more.

"Things are going to be okay. We don't need to be here long, we just need to figure out a way to turn off both the machines, and make sure that the Secretary can't turn it back on. Once we can reach some sort of agreement, we can leave. All we need to do is talk to them. They can keep us confined, for all I care. As long as we can talk with them." Lincoln finished, looking over at Liv, who was looking back at him with a look of awe on her face. "What?"

"How do you do that? Remain calm when literally everything else is against us." She asked him, and he shrugged.

"Habit, I guess."

The two jumped when the door opened suddenly, and both recoiled when they came face to face with Broyles. Of course it wasn't _their_ Broyles, but seeing a version of him again was too strange to deal with. His face was stoic as he spoke to them. "Follow me," he said, "and keep your heads down."

Lincoln glanced at Liv before getting out of the car and, making sure that she was next to him, following Broyles inside the building. He led them down a long hallway and to the left, where a lab was located. Liv had been here before, she knew what to expect, but Lincoln wasn't prepared for what they were going to see. He couldn't believe the technology that they were using, since it was not as advanced as what he was used to dealing with.

"Sit here," Broyles gestured to two empty chairs, "Agent Dunham is going to come and speak with you in a moment. I know the two of you have risked your lives and your jobs to come over here," he turned to Liv, "but if this is going to be a repeat of last time, you can bet we're not going to let you get away this time."

Liv looked down at the floor, "It's not. We just want to help."

Broyles stared at her for a long time before turned around to walk away. "Agent Dunham will be back soon." He called over his shoulder, and Lincoln grabbed her hand in a comforting fashion as the two of them settled in to wait for the other Fringe agents.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **_Okay, I've hit kind of a roadblock as far as my creativity for this fic, so I apologize if the last couple of chapters have been slow, and sort of uneventful. Hopefully this one gets back on track. Thank you to all my new readers, and those of you who have reviewed! It means a lot. Here we have chapter 8, and this is going to be kind of short, but the next update will be longer, I promise! Also, I want to clarify that I have nothing against Peter! Just for the sake of this fic, I figured he wouldn't take too well to Lincoln and Liv being in ~his universe. But give him time, don't give up on the character so quickly! x  
><em>

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><p>"So you have no idea how he got the thing on?" Peter was questioning Liv and Lincoln for what felt like the eightieth time that day. They weren't handcuffed and were even allowed to be in the lab, but they still felt like suspects, despite the numerous times they said that they were only there to help.<p>

Lincoln sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "We have Astrid on our side, too," he repeated, "and she's a statistic machine. She can't figure it out. No one can."

"I think he tried to use me." Liv interrupted, and continued, ignoring the look on Lincoln's face. She had never told him this before. "After he found out that our DNA was basically the same, he figured that we had the same powers as well. We do, but I don't know how he realized that, unless when I tried to cross over a week ago, he had me tested while I was unconscious."

"What do you mean, unconscious?" Lincoln asked her sternly, but she could hear the concern in his voice.

"You know what I mean. You picked me up, you saw that I was hurt…"

"Guys, come on. We're getting off topic." Astrid interrupted. She had been briefed on the situation and seemed to be the voice of reason during arguments between the four agents since they had arrived the day before. She had been a bit skeeved out meeting the 'other' Lincoln, and of course had mixed feelings about seeing Liv again, especially after knowing that she had worked with her for months and never realized it.

"Sorry." Lincoln said quietly, and refused to make eye contact with Liv, which caused a knot to start forming in her stomach. She hated disappointing him.

"So all we know is that he could have turned it on using you," Olivia said, pointing at the redhead, "but we're not sure… but how could he have done it without Peter? The blueprints show that Peter is necessary."

Lincoln shrugged, "That's what we couldn't figure out either."

"So basically you guys don't know anything." Peter said angrily, and Lincoln glared at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that my universe was being counted on to know everything about this situation. I'm not exactly best friends with the Secretary."

"All I'm saying is that for someone who claims to have crossed over here to help, you don't know anything that can help us in the slightest, _Agent_ Lee." Peter said venomously, and Olivia was looking at him warily.

"Peter…" She warned, but Lincoln was already on his feet.

"That's Captain Lee, thank you. I am head of the Fringe Division, Peter, and I am someone with high rank who has broken a lot of laws and rules and put myself and my team in danger to try and save the universe that you are calling home," Lincoln's eyes were cold, "I am not doing this to gain your trust, in fact, I could care less what you think of me. I am doing this because what we _do _know is that our worlds are quantum entangled. If one is destroyed, so is the other. I am here to prevent that from happening."

Peter opened his mouth to speak, but Olivia put a hand on his arm to keep him quiet. Lincoln continued, "My team is working full time on this case, one that we have no business investigating. If the Secretary catches word of this, he will arrest my entire division, and probably the two of us when we get back. So please stop acting like I'm inconveniencing you by being here, because for the last time, I am _trying to help_."

"He's right." Olivia said, surprising them both, "I was over there, Peter. I know how it is there… they've got better technology than we do and the Secretary won't allow them to use it against him, but they are. We need to start trusting them," she said, briefly making eye contact with Liv, "because if we don't, it doesn't matter what we do here, both worlds will be destroyed."

Lincoln sat back down and Peter looked at Olivia one last time before walking off angrily.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go on like that. Pulling rank isn't something I have the right to do here." Lincoln said to Olivia.

"Our worlds are quantum entangled?" Olivia asked, and he nodded.

"That was the last report that I got before we left. Agent Farnsworth said if we knew anything about this, that it needed to be that. Whatever we do here will have effects on both sides."

"We need to find the typewriter." Liv said, speaking for the first time in minutes, "It allows us to communicate with the other side. Astrid was working on finding the location of it on our side before we left, and was going to tell Charlie. If he found it, we can communicate with them to see if they have any more leads."

"I take it you know where it is?" Astrid said, and Olivia looked at Liv questioningly.

"I do." Liv said.

"I'll get the car." Olivia said, and walked away with Astrid, leaving Lincoln and Liv alone at the table in the lab.

"Why didn't you tell me about them doing tests on you?" Lincoln asked her, his eyes full of pain at the thought of what they had done to her.

"I only thought they did Linc, I couldn't remember." She said quietly, looking down at the floor.

"You were just a means to his end. It's sick. I won't let him get away with this." Lincoln said furiously, and despite the conviction that she was _not_ a girly girl, Liv's heart swelled hearing him defending her honor.

She linked their fingers together on the table and he looked up, a small smile on his face. "Things are going to be okay." She said, and he smirked.

"I thought that was my line."

Liv's eyes suddenly went wide, they way they did when she was remembering something. "Lincoln!" She said, "Remember you told me before we left that Astrid had said there was a high probability of them putting Peter into the machine? That would have been the night we left. They never did it… why?"

Lincoln nodded, agreeing with her, "You're right. Astrid mentioned that the machine would be protecting itself, not letting anyone else get in it. But there were two blueprints. One had Olivia's face on it." He said, wincing as he remembered feeling sick as he had looked at the blueprints, "They might not know that yet. We need to tell them so they can make a decision. I don't think we can let them do this, if they try to turn off the machine without knowing how it works, they could ruin everything."

"We'll tell them and see if we can get in touch with our Astrid so she can confirm what we're telling them." Liv said, and just as she was about to start formulating a plan, Peter came back in the room.

"I'm supposed to apologize," he said gruffly, "and to tell you that we're getting you a hotel for the night. We would put you up in the dorms or something but they don't have any empty ones."

Lincoln just raised his eyebrows at Peter, and Liv took that to mean 'are you really trying to talk to me right now?', and so she answered Peter herself.

"Thank you. I know you don't have to do this for us… but thank you." She looked back down at the floor, and Peter nodded before walking away. "I hate this." Liv said, and Lincoln glanced at her. "He hates me." She said bluntly, and Lincoln shrugged.

"I think he's madder at himself than anything else. I was, when I found out that you hadn't been, well, _you_."

"Let's just get ourselves over to the hotel. I could go for a shower." Liv said, and Lincoln realized for the first time in two days how exhausted he was. Traveling through universes and trying to plead a case took a lot out of him. Plus, he was constantly worried for Liv, seeing how uncomfortable and vulnerable she was over here.

"I'm down, let's go." Lincoln said, and he stood, holding a hand out for her to take. She did, and Lincoln looked down at their joined hands for a second, a small smile playing on his face.

If he had a penny for every time he thought of the two of them like this, he would be a very rich man. He dreamt about being with her for so long that now that it was happening, it still didn't feel real to him. He never felt this away about anyone else before. He didn't know what it was that was making him realize all of these things now, when everything was falling apart around them, but it was like a veil had been lifted. He knew that he needed to do this. He had to complete this mission for her, for them, so that they could go back home and raise Henry and be together. He wanted a life with her more than he could put into words.

"You okay?" She asked him, and he just smiled at her.

"Never been better."

"Okay, weirdo." She teased, nudging him with their joined hands.

He laughed and pulled her to him, walking closely with her out of the lab, following the hallways to the entrance of the lab where they would find a car waiting for them to take them to a nearby hotel. Once they made it outside, Olivia was waiting for them.

"Here," she said, and handed Liv a cell phone, "I'm going to call you if I learn anything new. And I just want you to know…" Olivia took a deep breath, "I want you to know that despite everything that's happened with you and Peter…" Liv cringed visibly, "I need to be able to trust you for this to work. Can I do that?"

"Of course you can," Liv said hurridly, "I want to fix this as much as you do, that's why I came here, that's why I needed to do this, to save my -" Lincoln elbowed Liv discreetly so that she wouldn't mention Henry. "- universe. To save my universe." Liv finished, and Olivia glanced between the both of them.

"Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Don't make me regret my decision. I'm going to try to get Peter on board with this, but you have to know that he's stubborn and he… well, I guess you would already know that." She finished lamely, and an awkward silence descended over the three.

"We're going to go and get some rest. We'll go and find that typewriter and try to get in touch with our people, as well." Lincoln said, intercepting the conversation and safely steering it away from more awkward silences.

"Okay, we'll be in touch." Olivia said, managing a small smile before walking back inside the building.

Lincoln squeezed Liv's hand before they both got in the car, looking forward to getting some sleep, and hopefully moving forward with this case before the Secretary did any significant damage.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** _First of all, I want to apologize for the long wait. I went out of town for Memorial Day Weekend, and then had to go straight back to work and was insanely busy packing. I did a lot of thinking about this next chapter over the weekend, and I've got a bit of writer's block, so I figured I'd go back to basics and take a break from some of the action of this fic. We're going to have a fluffy chapter, folks. I didn't get any replies on the last chapter, so it'd be really nice if I got some this time! (Hint, hint)  
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><p>Lincoln swiped the card to their hotel room for the eighth time, and this time, a tiny green light appeared, allowing him and Liv to open the door and head inside the room. Lincoln went straight to the bed, flopping face-first onto it and groaning.<p>

Liv fought off a smile as she watched him. "We really should go shopping and get clothes or something. We look so out of place here."

"Mffftpd." Lincoln mumbled into the bedspread.

"I'm sorry, I never learned how to speak 'tired Lincoln'." Liv grinned when he rolled over slowly, like it was taking all of his energy. He fixed his gaze on her.

"I said, pfffft. As in, pfffft, we don't need new clothes. We don't have any money, anyway."

Liv looked out the window, "Right. I forgot about that. You know, this place isn't so different."

Lincoln regarded her carefully, "How long would you have stayed? If they hadn't found out about you, I mean." Lincoln really didn't want to know her answer, and he cursed himself for even asking in the first place.

She didn't look at him right away, and when she did, he saw many different emotions playing in her eyes, and some of them were ones that he never wanted to put there again. "I didn't have a choice, Lincoln. I was fulfilling a mission. I didn't know completely what I was doing at the time, or what my purpose was. All I know is that I left because my cover was blown. I'm not sure what would have happened if they never found out about me. I _do_ know that we're here now, and the things that have happened have happened, and I just want to focus on now. Can you do that?"

Lincoln saw the vulnerable woman that he had first met when she joined Fringe division all those years ago instead of the strong, confident Olivia that she portrayed in front of him at that moment. Without a word, he stood up and pulled her slowly into his arms. "I'm sorry for asking. It's just that there's still so much that I wonder about… and I feel so guilty for not knowing you were gone."

She pulled away to look him in the eye, "Don't. If anyone should feel guilty, it should be me. I didn't tell you, or Charlie… I just let them replace me without even thinking twice about it. I shouldn't have done that. If I had known what the Secretary was going to try to do to her… I wouldn't have done it, I don't think." She said the last part quietly and looked down to the ground.

Lincoln tipped her chin up so he could look her in the eyes, "You want to know what I think? I think you're an amazing person. You might act like such a badass all the time, but I know you, Olivia Dunham. Underneath that badass that you are, you care so much for people, even people that you aren't supposed to care about."

Liv tried to look down, but he wouldn't let her. "I'm not finished." He said softly, and she was suddenly overcome with the urge to cry. "I'm in love with you. Have been for a long time," he admitted, "And I want you to know that there's literally nothing you can do to change that. I don't care what you've done in the past, Liv. I read the files. I know what happened, and I don't think any less of you. You have a beautiful baby boy at home, and while he isn't mine, I love him like he is. I wouldn't trade anything if it meant he wasn't around."

"So that means we can focus on now then?"

Lincoln smirked at her, "Yes, and right now I really want to kiss you."

Liv swatted at his chest with the back of her hand, and he caught it, keeping it pressed against him as he swooped down and captured her lips. She melted into him and sighed softly, causing him to do the same as he tightened his hold on her.

They broke apart slowly, and Lincoln gazed down at her, a blissful smile on his face. "This is all going to work out. I'm going to take care of you, Liv." He said, repeating words that he had said to her the night when her life was completely turned upside down. She believed him, and thought that they could do this as long as they were together.

Liv hugged him close to her, and she rested her head on his chest where she could hear his heartbeat. It was soothing to her, and she reveled in the few quiet moments they were being allowed. She knew that things were going to get chaotic and intense, and she didn't want to take this night for granted.

"Can we please get some food now?" She whined into his chest, and he laughed, the first real laugh she'd heard from him in days, and she smiled, feeling the vibrations of his chuckle.

"Yes. As soon as I figure out how we're going to get any money…"

"Let's just open a tab at the restaurant downstairs and then we'll see if we can get any money from the FBI. We'll pay it off later."

"Olivia Dunham, that is reckless behavior and as your boss, I cannot condone it." He said, but the smirk on his face told otherwise.

"Fine, I'll go eat by myself then!" She teased, and laughed when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to a sitting position next to him on the bed. She was sitting in front of him, and his chin found a resting spot on her shoulder.

"Not going anywhere now, are you? That'll teach you." He said quietly, his breath tickling her ear.

"We need to eat, Linc." She said, chuckling softly, and she felt him nod.

"I know, I know. I'll see if I can pull off my charm on an unassuming waitress… ow!" He laughed when he felt her smack him lightly on the arm. "Sorry, didn't know you could get so jealous!" He laughed again when he felt her pinch him this time, and he wrapped his arms around her tighter. "I didn't know you were so childish, Dunham!"

"I'm not childish, you're the one going to flirt with some waitress right in front of your…" She trailed off, not really sure what to call herself. They never made anything official. All the hand holding and kissing and everything they had been through seemed to have defined itself, and neither one of them thought to do it themselves.

"In front of my what?" He asked quietly, curious to see what she would say. He never wanted to put a label on anything they were, not even from the first day he met her. He was too afraid that labels would take away the easy intimacy they seemed to have formed, and he never wanted to do that.

"In front of your…" Liv stuttered, "… me. In front of me."

"In front of my you?" Lincoln asked, clearly trying not to laugh.

"If you're laughing at me, I'll hit you." She said, turning around in his arms to get a better look at his face.

He kept a straight face for about three seconds, before the corners of his mouth started to quirk upwards, and before Liv could feel him shaking with silent laughter. She hit him on the arm again, which only made him laugh harder, before he was laughing like she could only remember him doing once before.

"It's not funny!" She said, crossing her arms over her chest, but even she couldn't stop the smile from spreading over her face.

He let go of her briefly and collapsed onto the bed. "Sorry. I just… that didn't make any sense…" he explained while trying to catch his breath. "You don't want me to flirt in front of you because you're my girlfriend and you'd get jealous. " He said, looking at her with a raised brow, and she mirrored his expression.

"Is that what I am?"

"Well," he started, "I think you're a little more than that, but sure. Girlfriend. We'll go with that."

"What do you mean, more than that?"

He gave her a look, "Liv. Come on. I'm practically helping you raise your child. I've saved your life countless times and have told you that I'm in love with you. Girlfriend doesn't really cut it, does it?"

She had a small smile on her face and tilted her head to the side a bit, "No, I guess it doesn't really cut it." She said quietly, and Lincoln smiled, reaching up to brush some of her hair out of her eyes.

"Okay then. We're in agreement? You're my girlfriend-but-more-than-that."

"That's a mouthful."

"Good thing Henry can just call you 'mom'." Lincoln said, watching as a slow grin spread across Liv's face.

"He did say that, didn't he? I can't believe he's already talking it's…"

"A miracle, just like he is. I wouldn't put anything past that kid. I mean, take one look at his mother and I already know he's going to be a lady's man…" Liv snorted, "and his father…" Liv looked at him with a confused look, as Lincoln continued, "Liv. His father is Peter Bishop, and I think it's safe to say that we already know he's a little special. He holds the key to either saving or destroying universes… Henry's bound to have inherited something there."

"But Linc… you're… you're the one I want him to think of as his Dad. That's how it needs to be, how I want it to be."

Liv saw something in Lincoln's eyes then, something that she would never forget. No one had ever looked at her like that, with so much love that it was almost palpable and could be felt in the room. Not Frank, not Peter, no one. She realized, with a start, that Lincoln had _always_ looked at her like that.

The next thing she knew, his mouth was on hers, and they were pressed so close together that she could feel his warmth and every muscle through their clothes. She sighed into his mouth and he pulled her even closer, if that was possible.

"Dinner can wait, right?" He murmured huskily, and Liv nodded, pulling him back to her to kiss him again.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **_I'm so sorry that there has been such a long wait in between chapters! I finally have some free time though, so I figured I best get to writing and doing something creative with my time. To be honest, I'm not really sure about the next few chapters, but I have a good idea of where things are going, so let's hope everyone's pleased with the results! Like always, I'd appreciate it if you review after you read. :)_

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><p>Liv woke to the sounds of things being moved about, and the distinct smell of coffee being brewed. She closed her eyes for a second, allowing her senses to adjust to the things she had gone so long without. Sleeping in, and drinking coffee in the mornings. They were yet another reminder that she was not where she was supposed to be, and this thought jarred her out of her dozing. "What are you doing?" She asked, her voice rough from sleep.<p>

Lincoln turned to her, and his eyes softened a bit as they always did when he looked at her lately. "Morning, sleepy head. I've been out and about. Olivia called and told me where the typewriter was so I went and sent word to Charlie."

"You shouldn't have gone alone." Liv said, climbing across the bed to where she could reach him. His hands found her waist as she pulled him close, resting her head on his chest. "I'm tired." She said, and Lincoln tightened his hold on her.

"I can understand that. We need to check if Charlie's replied though, and whether he has or not, we need to get back to the lab to see if anything's happened with the machine."

"No, I mean, I'm _tired_. I can barely move, Linc." She said, and Lincoln tensed, immediately regretting that he hadn't noticed something was wrong. When he backed away from her slightly, he saw that she was pale and she could barely keep her balance while she was on her knees on the bed. "I don't feel good." She murmured quietly, and Lincoln frowned.

He moved to help her lay back down and pulled a blanket up over her. "Stay there, I'm going to call someone." He said, and grabbed the phone that they had been given by the FBI to stay in touch. It rang a view times, and he almost hung up when he heard Olivia's voice, not used to making the distinction between her and Liv. "This is Lincoln. Something's wrong with Liv, she's really sick. I need a doctor here." He said firmly, his leadership instincts taking over.

"Just bring her to the lab, Walter will figure it out. It's likely due to her crossing over, the last time she did it she didn't do it alone and it's probably taking a toll on her. It made me sick when I did it last time, too." Olivia said quickly, and Lincoln again was weirded out by hearing her voice and hearing her talking about crossing over from his universe.

"I um… I… thank you, Olivia." He said, and it was quiet on the other end.

"It's nothing. We'll wait for you here." She said finally, and she hung up before he could say anything else. He was feeling awful about how she had been treated on his side, but he knew that there was still a little bit of trust between them. He needed that. He knew that if anything was going to get done here, he needed Olivia to trust him. If she did, then Peter might come around as well.

"Liv? Can you walk?" Lincoln asked her, kneeling in front of her on the side of the bed.

"I think so." She said, and he could hear how tired she was in her voice. He was worried about her, but he couldn't let it show, he knew that. She never wanted anyone taking pity on her, and if he tried to act like he was taking care of her, she'd get all defensive and insist she was fine.

"We're going to go back to the lab. Olivia says that Walter can help. When she crossed back over from our side, she got really sick too. She says it's probably because you did it alone."

Liv shook her head, "No, when I went back to our side that time, I was by myself too. I never got sick. I don't know what's wrong."

A frown made its way onto Lincoln's face. "You don't think it's possible that you're just sick? A cold or something?"

"It feels worse than that. Look, let's just go to the hospital or something, they can give me some medicine and it'll be fine."

Lincoln frowned again. "Liv, I think we should take you to the lab. I don't know what's going on, but I have a bad feeling about it and I'd feel better if we went there first."

"I don't get it."

"It's nothing, it's just… I feel like we can trust them, Liv. From what I've heard, their Walter can do just about anything when he's focused. If there's a problem with you, he'll see to it and make sure you get better. I'm not going to take any chances with your health. I'm not asking, Liv. Let's go." He said, and was worried that she'd get angry with him for ordering her around, despite the fact that he was still her boss.

"Fine." She said, and he couldn't tell if she was just agreeing with him, or if she was upset. She struggled to stand, and when he went to help her, she pushed him slightly. "I'm not an invalid, Linc. I can walk."

She took two steps and her knees buckled slightly. "Sure you can." Lincoln said, irritated that she was upset with him for trying to take care of her. He walked over to her and picked her up, bridal style, and proceeded to carry her towards the door.

"Lincoln, I swear if you don't put me down in the next two seconds, I am going to punch you so hard."

"It'd be easier to carry you if you didn't move so much." He said, shifting her in his arms until he was more comfortable.

"This isn't helping anything; we'd get there faster if I walked."

Lincoln shot her a look, "Yeah, so I can risk you passing out and falling down a flight of stairs? Not going to happen." She kept trying to get herself out of his arms, which really wasn't saying much considering she could barely move. "Liv, stop it." He said firmly, but his gaze was soft when he looked at her. "I need to make sure you're okay. Just let me do this." He said.

"I really don't feel all that bad." Liv protested weakly, but even she couldn't deny that something wasn't right.

"You could barely walk." Lincoln scoffed, and got into the elevator of the hotel when it arrived. There was a couple in there, and they looked worriedly at the two agents.

"This is not a conversation I want to have right now." Liv whispered, and Lincoln rolled his eyes.

When they reached the lobby, Lincoln went to the front desk after setting Liv down on a couch nearby. "Hi," he said, putting on his best charming smile, and he knew it had worked when he saw the young girl at the counter blush. "I need to call a cab, but I'm from out of town. Is there any chance you could call one for me?"

He glanced at Liv on the couch, who rolled her eyes when the girl giggled and replied that she would call a cab and it would be there soon. Lincoln thanked her and made his way back to the couch and sat down. "Shouldn't be 5 minutes." He said, and looked at her again, making sure she hadn't gotten any more pale since he left her alone.

"Will you stop? You're going to worry yourself to death."

"I can't help it. I don't know what's wrong with you or how to help you… I don't like feeling helpless."

Liv reached for his hand, "I know, Linc, I know. It's going to be fine."

He looked at her, worry written all over his face, and Liv mentally scolded herself for being such a brat with him. He just wanted to help her, and she knew she should be grateful. The man had travelled to another universe for her, with hardly any questions asked about what they were doing.

The cab arrived and they got in, Liv starting to feel a bit better to where she could at least walk on her own. Lincoln still kept a hand on her lower back to steady her, and she made a real effort to let him take care of her without feeling like he was coddling her.

On their way to the lab, Liv slumped against Lincoln, complaining of a headache, and he went to reach for his earpiece, forgetting where he was and that he didn't have that power anymore. He didn't have the power to just order an ambulance to meet them at the lab and take Liv to the hospital, and that scared him. It scared him because he couldn't let her get hurt. He couldn't let anything happen to her because if he did, it would wreck him.

He watched her carefully, noting how every few minutes her expression turned painful, and his heart clenched at the sight. The last couple months had been hell on her, and he didn't know how much she could take. First, the kidnapping, giving birth and almost dying from it, then having god knows what done to her by the Secretary's cronies when she snuck into Liberty Island. Now, traveling through universes had clearly taken its toll on her, and he didn't know what to do. He could only hope that their Walter Bishop would know what was happening to her, if it was in fact a repercussion of all the strain she had been through lately.

They arrived at the lab, and Lincoln was surprised to see Olivia and Peter waiting at the doors for them. He got out of the cab and walked around to the other side where the cab driver was trying to help Liv get out. "Thank you, but I've got it from here." He said, and the cab driver nodded.

"There's no charge for this one, the hotel said it's on them."

Lincoln grinned when Liv rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, I'm sure she did."

"Come on, let's get you inside." Lincoln said, pulling one of Liv's arms around his shoulders, and putting his other arm around her waist, steadying her as they walked.

He looked up and saw Broyles waiting with Olivia now, and Peter walking back inside. His jaw tensed as he walked up to them, still not sure how to act.

"Agent Lee." Broyles said in greeting, and Lincoln didn't know whether to be shocked, or to be grateful that he was being treated with some respect. "Follow me."

Lincoln and Liv followed Broyles and Olivia past the lab, down the hall to a room that looked more like a hospital room than a lab room. "Are you doing okay?" Lincoln asked Liv quietly, and she shook her head no, leaning into him more than she had before.

"My head hurts." She said roughly, and he was upset to see that she was even more pale than she had been inside the cab. "I'm just tired, I just need to sleep."

"I'm not sure…" Lincoln trailed off when he saw Olivia looking at them intently. "I'm not sure that's the best thing for you right now." He finished, and looked to Olivia for some help.

"Uh… maybe you should wait until Walter gets here. If you're having trauma you really shouldn't sleep until he figures it out." She said quietly, and Liv looked up at Lincoln, who nodded.

"Let's just wait here and figure out what's going on, okay? There might not be anything wrong. You might just have a cold or something."

"It doesn't feel like that Lincoln, I told you. If something's wrong… I can't… I have other people to think about, I have you, and Henry and…" She trailed off when Walter came into the room, and Lincoln was glad for that, really not wanting to explain to everyone who Henry was.

"Hello, Agent Dunham… er, Agent Dunham." Walter addressed both Olivias and then looked around as an awkward silence settled over the room. "Why don't you sit down," he spoke to Liv, "and we'll figure out what's going on. I have a nurse from the local hospital here as well, just to run some basic tests. If it's something caused by crossing over, then I'll take over from there."

Liv nodded and Lincoln helped her to lie down on the bed. "Do you need a blanket or anything?" He asked her, and she shook her head.

"No, but some water would be nice." She said quietly, and Lincoln frowned, not used to hearing her sound so vulnerable. She hadn't been herself since they got here, and Lincoln didn't know what do to get her back to herself, to help her gain back the confidence she was usually filled with.

"I'll be right back," he said, smiling at her, "and I'll stay with you while they figure things out, ,okay?"

"Thank you." She said, squeezing his hand. Lincoln walked out of the room in search of some water when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Are you two together?" Olivia asked him, and he whirled around.

"Um…"

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business."

"It's fine… it's um. Yeah, I suppose we are. Recently though. Nothing official." Lincoln rambled, not sure why he was so nervous revealing this information.

"Okay. I just wanted to know. Look… I'm sorry. About how things are. And how they were, when I was… over there."

Lincoln's throat dried up and he really, really didn't want to talk about this. "I uh… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what they did to you. If I had known… I should have believed you. I should have done something." He said, "I don't want you to think that we're all like that… I mean, being here should convince you of that. But my team, they're trying everything they can to fix this, to try and find another way."

Olivia didn't look at him, and he was partly glad of that, because he didn't want to see her face, so much like the woman he was in love with, with the pain and hurt he knew must be etched all over it. It was too much. "I… I really can't get into this right now. I just wanted to… Is it really petty of me to say that I'm glad the two of you are together? I mean, I know she and Peter…"

Lincoln and Olivia both winced at the same time, and Lincoln wanted to laugh. They were both afraid of the same thing. That whatever feelings were once there, were there again. "So you and Peter…"

They were interrupted by a throat clearing in the hall, and looked up to see Broyles eyes on them. "She's asking for you." He said to Lincoln, and Lincoln abandoned his search for water and strode into the room quickly.

Olivia watched him go, admiring his strength and the way that he kept his composure for her alternate. She knew she could trust Lincoln, she just had to convince Peter of that, and Broyles as well. A little part of her was hoping that nothing was wrong with the other Olivia as well, because if it were, they might not be able to stop Walternate from whatever he was planning, and that scared Olivia more than leaving Peter and Liv alone for a few minutes did.

Lincoln made his way into the room, nearly shoving people out of his way in his haste to reach the redhead. "Liv?" He asked, seeing her hooked up to an IV. "What's going on?" He turned to Walter, "what's wrong with her?"

Walter's voice softened, seeing the concern written on the agent's face, "She's having some side effects from crossing over, I think. Nothing a little medicine won't fix, but I don't know what to give her to stop the headaches."

Lincoln furrowed his brow, "So, what, she just needs to rest or something? She slept all night, and still felt tired when she woke up this morning. How can she need to sleep more?"

"Agent Lee, please try to relax." Broyles said from the doorway, and Lincoln's shoulders slumped.

"I'm trying, I just _need _to know what's wrong. I need to make sure she's okay."

"We can still get you back to your universe if she-"

"Don't. Don't finish that sentence." Olivia said quickly as she moved into the room, surprising Lincoln. She looked at him, "She's going to be fine. Walter can help her out, I'm sure of it." She gave a meaningful look to Walter, and then glanced back at Lincoln. "I had headaches for awhile after I got back, too." She said, and Walter nodded.

"So what do I do? There's so much we need to do…"

"You can do it. Someone will stay here with her and keep an eye on her until she's back on her feet. Listen, I really need you to find that typewriter. We need to figure out what's going on on your side."

"I really should stay."

"Go, Linc." Liv piped up from the bed, tired of hearing people argue over her wellbeing. "I'll be fine. Walter… Dr. Bishop," She corrected herself, "can take care of me while you're gone." Lincoln tried to protest, but her grip on his hand stopped him. "You need to do this, okay? It's the whole reason we're here. Talk to Charlie, figure out what's happening… figure out how to stop this."

Lincoln stared at her intently, trying to make up his mind. He didn't want to just leave her there. While he felt like everyone had her best interests at heart, he had never been able to just leave her alone if she needed him. He wanted her to need him. He wanted to help her; he had always wanted to fix everything for her. He couldn't do that now, and he knew it, but he still felt so helpless. Leaving her here while he was out in a city he was unfamiliar with wouldn't be easy, but he knew she was right. "Are you sure?" He asked, knowing she would roll her eyes, which she did.

"Yes. Go, please. Save the world, be a hero, all that jazz." She said, waving a hand at him.

He laughed despite the situation, and as he walked out of the room, he could have sworn there was a small smile playing on Olivia's face as well.

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><p><em>so, what do we think? again, i'm so sorry about the wait. reviews are lovely...<em>


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **_Okay, here we go. Sorry for such a long wait, but I went camping for the fourth of July and just go back! I'm trying to answer more questions with this update, and thank you for the feedback I've received so far! Someone told me they'd like to know a little bit more about Altlivia's abilities, so I'm going to do my best to write a bit more explaining that. Also, I want to say that I'm sorry for making Peter such a jerk in all the chapters! He'll come around eventually, I just thought it would be more realistic this way, because I can't imagine he'd be all that happy about having people from the red!verse on his side with Olivia. So here's the next installment! Hopefully it turns out okay! Reviews afterwards would be lovely, and thank you!_

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><p>Liv felt tired, more tired that she should. She knew something was wrong, but she felt helpless to do anything about it. It surprised her how calm Dr. Bishop was with her. She knew that she had betrayed him too, and she was surprised he wasn't showing more hostility considering what she had done to his son.<p>

"Do you remember doing anything strenuous lately?" He asked her, and she scoffed.

"Besides crossing over?"

A small smile was on his face, "That's what I mean. Did you do anything differently than the last time? I know you have the technology to get here and back on your own."

Liv remembered how they had gotten into the room in the first place, and her eyes went wide. "I… I did something. With my mind." She said quietly, and Walter's eyes flitted to hers.

"With your mind?"

"Yes." She replied, "There was a lock on the door… and I remembered… I remembered that Olivia had diffused a bomb with her mind. So I tried it."

His gaze was intent as he looked at her. "And were you successful?"

She nodded, not really able to talk about it. She was still struggling to process what she had done.

"Interesting, that's very interesting." Walter said, as he fixed her IV before standing, "You should be fine. You just need to rest. I do wonder though… I wonder if you have the same abilities as Olivia. If you do, and this is the first time you have used them, it could be causing a lot of stress on your body. We should run some tests to make sure."

Liv looked alarmed at trying to do anything other than sleep at the moment. She felt far too tired to do anything. She was sure Lincoln would demand that all she did was sleep.

"Not today of course," Walter said, seemingly reading her thoughts, "a different day. After you've rested."

"How do you know I'll even be here in a few days?"

Walter looked at her for a long moment, "Surely you can't believe that what's happening can be fixed in hours? You'll be here for awhile."

"You don't think I'm going to make it back at all, do you?" She asked him honestly, and part of her didn't want to know the answer. In the short time she worked with this man, and as she was talking to him now, she knew that his intelligence was often overlooked. He was smarter than most people gave him credit for, and he was good at speaking the truth, whether it was understood or not.

Walter opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the door opening. Peter walked in, and Liv immediately looked away, not sure how she was supposed to act in this situation. He avoided her gaze as well, and the room instantly became thick with tension.

"How are you doing?" He asked quietly, and Liv frowned in confusion.

"Is Olivia making you ask me?"

"No. I… yes. She is." He said, and Liv would have chuckled if it had been with anyone else.

"Well you can stop wasting your time then. If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine."

"I just… I don't know how to do this." Peter said, and Liv still hadn't looked at him. She refused to. As if someone was reading her mind, Lincoln chose this moment to burst into the room. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then saw Liv and Peter looking uncomfortable, and Walter trying not to be noticed.

"Everything okay?"

"Fine, just peachy." Liv answered, and Lincoln frowned.

"Well… okay. I got another reply from Charlie. There's good news."

"What? What's happened?" Liv asked, immediately perking up. Hearing good news didn't come often to Fringe Division, especially where the Secretary was involved.

"Agent Farnsworth says there's little to no chance that the Secretary is going to send people after us, or come here himself. So as long as we're here, we have a good shot at getting the better of him."

"That's all she said?" Peter asked.

Lincoln scowled, "She also said that there was a 60 percent chance that Fringe Division here," he shot a pointed look at Peter, "were going to turn on the machine." He turned to Peter once more, "I have to ask you not to do that. We don't know what it does, or what's going to happen now that the machine in our universe is turned on, but it can't be good."

Peter was shaking his head, "We already have plans, and you can't just come here and tell us what to do."

Lincoln gritted his teeth, "I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I'm asking you on behalf of my universe to kindly _not_ destroy it."

"Can you two shut up for three seconds? I'm trying to think."

"Excuse me?" Lincoln and Peter said simultaneously, as Liv glared at them from her bed.

"It's got to be a false lead. Linc, why wouldn't he send people after us? He didn't have any reason to send those shapeshifters before, and he did. Now he has a reason. It doesn't make sense."

Lincoln furrowed his brow, "Liv, Astrid's a statistics machine. She wouldn't tell me anything if she wasn't sure."

"Unless she was being threatened…" A voice from the doorway sounded, and the three turned to see Olivia peeking in. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"You think someone's threatening her?" Peter asked her, and Olivia nodded.

"It's possible. We're using a typewriter. We can't see anything that's going on over there. For all we know, they've taken Fringe Division and are feeding us false information.

"That's impossible." Lincoln said immediately, shaking his head. "They wouldn't… Charlie would never…"

"I'm not saying Charlie is a double agent." Olivia said immediately, "but someone could be posing as him, sending messages to try and throw you off the scent."

"Linc, what if they did? What about Charlie, what if something's wrong?"

Lincoln shook his head, "No, calm down. It's fine. Charlie's tough, Liv, you know that. He agreed to this. He knew what could happen, it'll be fine. We don't know anything for sure."

"That's the problem." Peter pointed out, and Lincoln shot a look in his direction.

"What if we do what's necessary here?" Walter asked quietly from his seat next to Liv. He hadn't spoken the entire time, finding the exchange between the four of them fascinating. Olivia and Liv were more different than he had realized, and he wondered again how he and Peter and everyone else had failed to notice the switch last time.

"What do you mean, Walter?" Olivia asked him.

"What if we dismantle the machine over here?"

"We can't touch it, Walter."

"I didn't say we would do it. What if we could find a way to turn it off, and then dismantle it?"

"Well sure, we could sit here and wonder about what-if's all day Walter, but how are you suggesting we actually make these plans a reality?" Peter asked testily, and Lincoln fought off the urge to hit him.

"We have two Olivias." Walter said quietly, "Both of whom have showed that they have the ability to use telekinesis."

"No." Lincoln said immediately, " She only did it once, you can't honestly think that she'd-"

"Lincoln, stop." Liv said quietly, and he stared at her intently, trying to convey to her how much he didn't want her to do this. He felt like he was in her apartment again, trying to convince her that she couldn't save the world by herself. He knew that if she did anything, she'd do it with Olivia, but for some reason that knowledge didn't calm his nerves any. "Can you leave us alone for a minute?"

Everyone looked at Liv warily, and she huffed, "Relax, I'm not going to do anything. I just need to talk to him. In private."

"I could use a milkshake, how about you?" Walter not-so-subtly asked Peter, and everyone filed out of the room except for Lincoln, who took a seat next to Liv's bedside and put his head in his hands.

"You know I can't let you do this." He said after a while. "And before you start ranting and raving about how you're perfectly capable of doing this, and how you _want_ to do this, it's not about you. I can't let you do this because I couldn't take it if something went wrong."

"Nothing's going to go wrong. Have a little faith." Liv said softly, with a small smile on her face, "I know you're worried. I appreciate that you're worried. I don't want you to be so overprotective though."

"Says the woman in a hospital bed. Who I had to carry here." Lincoln said, scowling again, running a hand through his hair.

"Hey." Liv grabbed Lincoln's hand and squeezed it, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for making you worried, and for dragging you here in the first place. I know you hate it."

"I just hate that we're in constant danger. I hate being in a place where I have no authority in case something goes wrong. I hate that they don't trust us, or our team, or our opinions."

Liv squeezed his hand again and he moved closer, resting his elbows on the edge of her bed. He leaned in close and kissed her softly, fighting the urge to deepen the kiss and try to convince her to go home. "I'm sorry for being so testy. I just want to sort this all out so we can go home. And I want to do it right. I want to make sure the Secretary is stopped, and I don't know how. That's what I hate the most. That I don't know what to do."

"We have to try, Lincoln." Liv said, referring to Walter's plan, "If we don't, and he wins, then what good was our coming over here? If we try it, and something good comes from it, then we can sleep better at night."

"I already sleep pretty good at night." Lincoln said with a wink, causing Liv to blush and smack him lightly.

"I'm serious!"

"I know, I know."

"Linc?"

"Hm."

"I miss Henry." Liv said for the first time since they'd been gone, and Lincoln felt his heart crack watching tears start to form in her eyes.

"Oh, Liv. I know, I know." He said, pulling her into his arms, trying to take away her pain. He waited until she stopped crying, rocking her back and forth like he had done the night Henry was born before he pulled away slightly. "I should go find Walter. Will you be okay?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Yeah. I want to talk to Olivia. Can you ask her to come in here?"

"Are you sure?" Lincoln eyed her warily.

"Yeah, it needs to happen."

"Okay," Lincoln said, moving towards the door, "I'll be back in a few minutes. And Liv?" He asked, waiting until she looked up at him, "I love you." He said quietly, the smile he reserved just for her firmly in place on his face.

"I love you, Lincoln." She said, and Lincoln felt as if he could breathe again.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** _Here we go. Next chapter. I'm sorry for the wait between chapters, as always. I always start to write one right after I finish the previous one, but it never ends up getting finished, haha. Plus that dumb writer's block has been with me for the last week or so. Anyway, on with the chapter. This is one is a lot of dialogue, so sorry if it seems a bit slow! Please review if you read. Thanks and enjoy!  
><em>

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><p>Lincoln would be lying if he said he wasn't worrying about why Liv wanted to talk to Olivia so badly. It seemed as if all he did these days was worry, especially about her. He was standing outside Liv's room, and he could hear faint voices if he listened hard enough. He was trying not to eavesdrop, though.<p>

Across from him, leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway, was Peter. Lincoln scowled because he knew why Peter was listening in, as well. They were both there in case things got out of hand, although Lincoln didn't think anything would happen. Words would be exchanged and there might be hurt feelings, but Lincoln felt as though this needed to happen. They needed to clear the air. It was clear that Peter was not on the same page.

Lincoln supposed he would feel the same way if he were in Peter's shoes. It was so hard to sympathize with the guy though, so he just tried to ignore him altogether. If he were really honest with himself, he thought that he and Peter had a lot in common. His thought process was interrupted by the door opening, and Olivia walking out.

"Okay?" Peter asked her quietly, and Olivia managed a small smile.

"Better." She said, and Lincoln smiled at her.

"Thank you." He said, and she just shook her head.

"You don't even know all the things I should thank you for, Lincoln. We're even now, okay?"

He shot her a quizzical look, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't know it was me, I understand that. But you still thought something was wrong. And instead of pushing me, to tell you what was wrong with me and make me talk, you just let me be. And I think if I had told you what was happening, things would have gotten a lot worse. So thank you."

Lincoln shook his head, "I wouldn't have done anything, I wouldn't have turned you in, if that's what you were thinking. You two have a lot in common, obviously, but you're much more level headed than she is. That's what I noticed when Charlie thought that something was wrong. That's the only reason I had to think for a minute that what he was telling me might be true."

"Well either way… things didn't turn out that bad, did they?" She looked at him like she knew something, and he panicked thinking she might know about Henry. He didn't know what she was planning to tell Peter.

"Can you… can you excuse me for a minute?" He asked, and without a response, he pushed his way inside Liv's room.

"Liv." He said, and he visibly relaxed when she smiled up at him like he was the best thing she'd ever seen. "I uh… Did you tell Olivia about… about Henry?"

"… I told her I have a son. I didn't say who the father was."

"So she thinks… she thinks I'm his father?"

"You are, Lincoln."

"Olivia. I mean biologically. I need to know what you told her if I'm going to keep lying to people." He said, and then he winced, seeing as it came out much harsher than he wanted it to. "I'm sorry. I'm just… I don't know how to feel about all of this."

"I know, Lincoln, it's okay. Sit down, we'll talk."

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><p>Lincoln and Liv walked hand in hand down the hall to their hotel room, after a grueling day. When Walter deemed that Liv would be ready to walk and was in no danger of getting sick again, they began brainstorming with Olivia and Peter about how they were going to turn off the machine. They were both exhausted after trying to figure out how the two Olivias were going to disarm the machine using nothing but their minds. They even tried to see if Liv could use her abilities willingly, but she had gotten so stressed out that Walter had just said they should both go home.<p>

Lincoln had ignored her saying that she wasn't hungry and had stopped at a pizza place on the way back and made her eat a slice while they walked. He noticed that she was quieter than usual, but didn't want to ask her any more about the talk she had with Olivia.

She had told him mostly everything, he thought, but he sensed that there was something that she was leaving out. It was fine with him, really, but he thought that there might be something weighing on her mind, and he wished that she'd share it with him.

Once they got into their room, Liv immediately disappeared into the bathroom, and when she came out, Lincoln noticed that her eyes were more red, and he frowned. "Liv…" He said gently, and she looked at him, the pain palpable.

"I wish we could go home. I miss Henry, I just…" She trailed off, knowing that nothing she said would do any good. They needed to stay here, and she knew that. She missed her son though, more than she had ever missed anything in her life. She constantly worried about him, and she knew Lincoln did too. "Next time we talk to Charlie, we need to ask about Henry, I can't just sit around without knowing if he's okay."

"Liv, I'm not sure… I'm not sure we're going to be able to talk to Charlie until we dismantle the machine. Olivia doesn't want to take any chances in case Fringe Division's been compromised."

Liv looked like she was ready to either kill him, or throw something. "I need to know if he's okay, Lincoln." She said tightly.

"Liv, I know that. God, I know that. Don't think I don't worry about him too. But we can't take that chance. If headquarters is in the Secretary's control, I don't want Henry becoming bait."

Liv flinched, "Don't say stuff like that."

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth." Lincoln said, moving closer to her so he could grab her hands. "Promise me you're not going to try to contact him." He said, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

She looked at him long and hard. "We need to fix this so we can get the hell out of here." She said, and Lincoln nodded.

"Absolutely. That's what I want to do too, Liv, you know that."

Liv nodded. She knew that Lincoln had her best interests at heart when he didn't want her to contact headquarters. It was the worst feeling not knowing if her son was okay, though, and she had to make him understand that. They needed to do what they came here to do, it was as simple as that. She didn't want to try to fix relationships between their universes anymore. She wanted to disarm the machine and she wanted to get out of there.

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><p>The air was tense as Olivia and Liv stood in front of the machine. Lincoln and Peter were both standing off to the side with Broyles as Astrid and Walter flitted around the room, readying all the equipment they needed to monitor any changes.<p>

"It's not too late to turn back." Olivia said quietly, so no one but her alternate would hear.

Liv smirked, "No way. If we're going to do this, we're only going to do it once. I don't want to deal with this thing again."

"I just mean that if you're having second thoughts -"

"I know what you meant." Liv said, turning her head to look at her, "and I want to do this."

Olivia nodded. "Okay then."

Behind them, Lincoln watched the two speak to each other quietly, and suddenly wished that he could hear what they were saying. Being in the position he was in, he knew that he had to be both Liv's boss and her boyfriend at the same time during this situation, and it was tough on him. It didn't help that she had shown next to no emotion this morning when they had received the call that the machine needed to be shut down today.

The machine was making all sorts of awful noises, and the fear started to creep through Liv's body slowly. She looked behind her for a minute, made eye contact with Lincoln, and then turned around again.

"Okay, we're ready." Walter announced, while Astrid started to pace, something she did when she was truly nervous. "All we need you two to do is concentrate. Think about what you're trying to achieve. Think about shutting down this machine, and your minds should be able to do the rest. If you start to feel faint, then take a deep breath before trying again."

Liv nodded, and Olivia turned around. Liv could only assume that she was searching Peter's face for any sign of encouragement, as she had just done with Lincoln. Peter still hadn't spoken to Liv besides asking both her and Lincoln questions about the machine. If it wasn't anything to do with work, he ignored her. Liv wasn't sure that this was the best thing, but she accepted it. She knew she had hurt Peter deeply with what she did, and while she felt as though she was making progress with Olivia, she didn't want to push it.

Olivia turned back around to face forward, and the two Dunhams mirrored each other's positions. Lincoln tensed as he watched them both close their eyes and take deep breaths. He was scared, though he would never admit it.

It felt like an eternity that they all stood there, holding their breath. Peter hadn't moved a muscle, though he was gripping the table they were leaning against until he was white knuckled. Lincoln was on the opposite side of the table, leaning onto it with his palms down, much like the stance he often could be found in when he was in his office in headquarters.

Broyles had taken to pacing, along with Astrid, until they heard a noise, and the whole room froze. Lincoln straightened, reading to sprint to Liv and pull her out of the way if he needed to, when he saw the machine start to move. There was a terrible groaning noise as the metal shifted and turned, and it seemed to be collapsing on itself.

Walter was shouting out things to Astrid, who was poised at the ready in front of the computers, watching for any signs that things may be going bad. Lincoln kept his eyes trained on Liv, who still hadn't opened her eyes. Her fingers were moving slightly, so Lincoln assumed that she was aware that something was happening.

The machine was whirring now, making a louder noise than it had before. Lincoln barely had time to react before a white light blinded them all, a loud bang sounded, and he couldn't see anything. He could hear Peter shouting Olivia's name, a desperate sound that made him so afraid that everything had just went wrong. He struggled to push off from the floor, having landed on his leg in a strange position, but eventually got to his feet.

He could see now, and he saw Liv, lying on her side a few feet away from him, Astrid bent over her, talking to her. He saw Peter and Olivia in the same situation, but he ignored them, ignored everything going on around him as he ran to Liv's side.

"Liv." He didn't ask a question, because she had to answer him, she _had _to. "Liv." He repeated, louder this time.

"Agent Lee…" Astrid touched his shoulder to get his attention, but he shrugged it off. "Lincoln, listen to me."

"Olivia!" Lincoln said, louder, "Liv…" He repeated, rolling her over onto her back so he could see her face. Her eyes were closed, but he could feel that she had a pulse. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he looked up at Astrid finally. "Is she… tell me she's…" He trailed off, not able to finish his thoughts.

"I think she's okay, she's breathing. We need to get her to the hospital."

"This is the second time in three days that she's been in a life threatening situation. This cannot happen anymore." Lincoln said firmly, his role as Head of Fringe Division taking over.

"I don't know what to tell you, Agent Lee, but we need to get her and Olivia to the hospital right now." She said, pushing off of the floor and going to, he presumed, tell Peter the same thing.

Olivia and Peter were talking though, and Lincoln felt a bitter taste in his mouth. Olivia had done this before, to an extent. She knew what to expect. She wasn't unconscious right now, but the woman he loved had just risked her life for the millionth time since he knew her.

Things needed to change, and fast.


	13. Author's Note

**Quick author's note: **So sorry for the delay in between adds, guys! I've been so busy with work and then I took a vacation, and I've been getting ready to go back to school in the fall as well. I do have the next chapter started, but it's not anywhere close to being finished. I'm hoping to have it done by next week at the absolute latest, but if I get a burst of inspiration, it could be done sooner than that. Thank you so much for your patience, though. x


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N:** _Once again, a million apologies for taking so long to finish this chapter! There's a turn of events in it that I wanted to make sure I got right (hopefully you all approve!). Not much to say to preface this though, it pretty much picks up right where the last chapter left off._

_Reviews are appreciated, so if you read, please let me know what you thought! Thank you!_

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><p>"What happened? Did it work?" This question was the first thing to come out of Liv's mouth at the hospital. Lincoln had been sitting by her bed long past visiting hours, holding her hand, and the first thing she wanted to know about was the machine. He had to laugh. "Does that mean no? Tell me something!" She said, and Lincoln grinned, hearing the vigor that had been missing reappear in her voice.<p>

"We think it worked. Either that or you blew a fuse in the thing, because it doesn't appear to be functioning. The lights are all out, it's not making that noise anymore…" Lincoln trailed off, not wanting to get Liv's hopes too high in case it hadn't worked. They didn't have much to go on – Lincoln and Peter both were too nervous to get near it in case it was still on. "… we're not sure though. Until we have something more concrete to go on, I don't want to get your hopes up."

Liv rolled her eyes. "You don't have to protect me, Linc. I can handle it."

"Look, we don't have to tiptoe around this issue. We're both Fringe Agents, Lincoln. We're trained to deal with stuff like this."

"Maybe I don't want you to have to deal with it, okay?" Lincoln said harshly, but almost immediately, his eyes softened as he looked at her. "I know how you feel about your job. You don't have to explain that to me, but maybe think about it from the perspective that I'm dealing with?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Ever since I was younger, I always wanted to protect people. That's why I joined the force, that's why I took this job, Liv." He looked down for a moment, fiddling with the hem of his shirt before his eyes met hers once more. "I need to protect you. It's instinct, sure, but… it's more than that. You know why."

Olivia felt guilty immediately. "Can I tell you something?" She met his eyes briefly, "When the other Olivia and I talked before? She told me that when she first started working for Broyles, he told her that her ability to use her emotions in her cases were what made her a good agent. I'd say the same thing about you, you know."

Lincoln let a small smile play on his face while she went on.

"I know you want to protect me. I don't take that for granted, okay? But you have to know that you're so important to me, Linc. You're _so_ important. I wouldn't do anything if I thought I was going to get hurt or…"

Lincoln flinched visibly, and Liv changed what she was going to say, "… or if something worse might happen."

"I know." He admitted quietly. "I just want things to be okay again."

"They will be," she assured him.

He smiled at her and opened his mouth to talk, but didn't get the chance. Peter burst into the room, out of breath. "I need you to come with me, right now." He said to Lincoln.

"What's going on?" Liv asked, shooting a worried glance at Lincoln.

"It's just… I just need him to come with me. Obviously you can't leave right now or I'd be bringing you with me as well."

"I'll be back soon." Lincoln said, squeezing Liv's hand, before he followed a worried Peter out of the room.

"Broyles called," Peter said, over his shoulder as they walked through the hallways of the hospital, "He said that he heard a lot of noise in the lab after we had left, and he had evacuated the area after the machine was activated, so he didn't know what was going on in there."

"Did something happen with the machine? Is it back on?"

"No. It's better. Or worse, I guess, depending on how you look at it."

"What are you-" Lincoln stopped short as they rounded a corner, which opened up into a larger hospital room. He stopped dead in his tracks when a curtain was pulled and he saw Charlie and Astrid lying on a bed.

Charlie was protesting loudly that he was fine and didn't need any attention, while Astrid seemed to be in a daze of some sort, not really focusing on anything happening in the room.

"What in the hell…" Lincoln mumbled, and Peter sighed.

"I don't know how they got here. The same way you did, apparently. But they came straight to the lab, and were there right after the machine went off. Broyles sent them here to make sure that they weren't injured from crossing over."

Lincoln had stopped paying attention to what Peter was saying and made his way across the room slowly. "Charlie? What is going on?" He asked his friend, although part of him refused to believe this was real, that they were here. He knew if they were, something was wrong.

"It's about time someone I know showed up. Where's Liv?" Came his gruff reply, and Lincoln shook his head.

"No, you need to talk. What happened? Why are you here?"

"You guys need to figure out a plan, and fast." Astrid said, from her bed next to Charlie. "He knows. He knows you are here, and he's not going to let you come back unless we do something."

Lincoln winced. "I don't understand."

"He was trying to find you guys, for days. He went to Marilyn's, Lincoln." Charlie said, and Lincoln blanched, immediately thinking of the older woman there alone, with Henry, and with no way to protect them.

"Is she… is he…" Lincoln sputtered, not wanting to reveal too much while Peter was in the room. He desperately needed to know if Henry was okay. It was as if his own child's life was hanging in the balance.

"They're both fine, as soon as Agent Farnsworth got word that the Secretary was going there, I went over there. Acted like I was just paying a visit. That's how I got wind of the fact that he knew what you two were up to. Speaking of which," Charlie peered around, "You didn't answer my question. Where's Liv?"

"She's in another room… resting." Lincoln said.

"What the hell happened in that lab?"

"It's… complicated." Lincoln said, turning to Peter for his input.

"Sorry," Peter started, "I'm just a little… there's another Astrid. And Charlie. I mean… I knew the Charlie Francis from this side."

"Knew?" Charlie asked, and Lincoln felt confused. He had never even though to ask about this side's Charlie.

"Um…" Peter started, but was cut off when Olivia walked into the room.

"He was my partner, and he was killed by a shapeshifter." She said bluntly, and Charlie visibly winced. "I need to find out everything you two know, but first we need to get you out of here before anyone else gets more confused."

"I… Olivia." Charlie said dumbly, and Lincoln squeezed his shoulder.

"You were right the entire time, Charlie. This was the Olivia that had worked with us all those months."

"I'm sorry." Charlie said quickly, before looking down.

"There'll be plenty of time for this later," Peter interrupted. "I'm sorry, I know it's probably important that you three all talk, but we really need to figure out a plan. Especially if what you say about my father is true."

"It is." Astrid assured them, and Peter nodded.

"I'll get Broyles to make sure we can get you released today, into our custody." Olivia said, before walking out of the room, Peter hot on her heels.

"I don't even know where to begin with how weird this is." Charlie said, and Lincoln nodded, looking at Astrid.

"There's an Agent Farnsworth here, too." He said, "Just so you're prepared. She works very close with Walter and the rest of Fringe Division."

"My head hurts already," Astrid said, and Lincoln and Charlie just stared at her. "That was a joke," she said blandly, "sometimes I make jokes."

Lincoln snorted, despite the severity of the situation. "Um… okay. So… now we need to figure out a plan, right? Well, I suppose it'll be better, with you here. I'm uh… I'm glad you're here." Lincoln said, "I'm glad you're both okay." He spoke while looking at the ground.

"It's cool, Linc. We'll figure this out. We'll stop him."

Lincoln looked up, "We have to, Charlie. We have to stop him."


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: Nothing much to say before this one! More action will come in the next chapter, I promise!**

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><p>Lincoln was on his way back to Liv's room, when he stopped and saw Peter and Olivia, not too far from him. Olivia was sitting on a chair, her head in his hands, and Lincoln swore that he could hear small sobs coming from the blonde agent. Peter was kneeling in front of her, whispering words that were only meant for her.<p>

Lincoln felt such a sense of love and trust coming from the couple that he felt terrible for watching them the way he was. He felt like he was intruding, even though he had a pretty good idea at what had Olivia so upset. He wasn't sure if she remembered meeting Charlie when she had been on their side. If she had already been infused with his Liv's memories, there wouldn't have been that moment where it was like she was seeing her partner come back from the dead.

His feet seemed to be moving of their own accord, and he found himself in front of Olivia. "I didn't know they were coming," he said, feeling the need to explain even though she hadn't asked him to, "I would have told you beforehand if I would have known… I didn't mean to spring that on you."

"Lincoln… it's not your fault. I just didn't…" she swallowed thickly, "… when I was over there, on your side, I wasn't myself. I didn't register that he was _Charlie_. It didn't hit me, but now it has. I just need to get past this." She said, and Lincoln noticed her vice grip on Peter's hand.

"Okay. I'll just leave you alone for awhile." Lincoln began to walk away, his mind swimming. The most prominent thing on his mind, however, was the news that the Secretary was going to try to come to this Universe. To do what, he didn't know, but he knew the man must be angry, and Lincoln and Liv would be receiving the brunt of his anger, he was sure. He needed to make sure that Liv was mentally prepared for this. While it sounded chauvinistic, and he knew she would never go for it, he wanted her to promise that she wouldn't be out of his sight. He couldn't do his job well enough if he was worrying about her.

Walking into his room, he was startled by her sitting on the side of her bed, lacing her shoes as a nurse checked her vitals again. "Hey." She said, her trademark smirk present on her face.

"Hey…" He said slowly, "so you're out of here already?"

The nurse cut in, "She's all ready to be discharged, unless you think there's anything else that needs to be looked at?"

Lincoln shook his head, "I don't think so, but that's not really up to me. I need to check with my… with…" He trailed off, not sure what to call Olivia or Broyles. "I need to check with someone first." He finished lamely, and the nurse nodded.

"That's fine. I'll be back in a few minutes to see what you've decided." She left the room and shut the door to give Lincoln and Liv a bit of privacy.

"You know she's with the FBI, right?" Liv asked him, sitting back on her bed. "The nurse, I mean. She's been briefed with the situation, that's why she's the only nurse that's allowed to be in here right now."

"They've got the whole wing shut down right now, actually." Lincoln said.

"Why, what happened?" Liv asked, her voice full of alarm.

"You might want to sit down," Lincoln said.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone's fine, it's just… Charlie's here."

"What?" Liv cried, and Lincoln cut her off before she could fire off a series of questions at him.

"He's with Farnsworth, and they're fine, the both of them. They were coming here to warn us, Liv. The Secretary's planning on coming here." He purposely left out the part about Charlie having to intercept the baby to make sure the Secretary didn't take him for bargaining purposes, knowing that this would kill Liv. He already felt the pain he was sure she did too – not being able to care for a child that was only a few months old.

It seems he could read her mind however, as she turned pale and choked out, "Henry. Is Henry okay? Lincoln…"

"He's fine, Liv. It's okay." He embraced her quickly, noting how shaky she had gotten at just the mere idea that her son could have been hurt.

"Sorry… I didn't mean to freak out, I just… I hate being so far away from him."

"I know," Lincoln smoothed down her hair, "I hate it too. Charlie made sure Henry and your Mom were okay before he and Astrid came here. They're fine, they've been moved to a safe house." He explained carefully, trying to calm her down while at the same time giving her the reassurance he knew she needed.

"So what do we do now?"

"We need to figure out a plan, with the FBI," Lincoln slipped into leader-mode, "Ideally if we could keep him from crossing over at all, that would be best. If Astrid and Charlie could have gotten here this easily though…" He trailed off, his brow furrowing.

"Let's just… let's just make sure I'm okay to leave and we'll go figure something out." Liv said, her voice shaky.

Before they could leave the room, the door opened, and Olivia walked in. "Just checking on you," she said softly and Lincoln could see the red around her eyes. She had been crying.

"The nurse said she can be discharged, if you and Broyles think that's best." Lincoln said, and Olivia nodded.

"Of course… what?" She asked when she noticed the way Lincoln and Liv kept stealing glances at one another. "What's going on?"

"Charlie… Charlie said that the Secretary is planning on crossing over, and he's not coming alone." Lincoln said, "we need to stop him, or come up with a backup plan in case that doesn't work."

Olivia's face turned pale, just like Liv's had upon hearing the news. "He's coming here." She repeated, and then shook her head as if to get herself back in the moment. "We need to get back to the lab. Or to Massive Dynamic. I'll make sure…" she trailed off, looking uncomfortable, "I'll make sure Agent Francis and Farnsworth are ready to go."

"Olivia." Liv said quietly, causing the blonde to turn her head towards her counterpart, "I'll do it. I know it must be hard for you." When Olivia looked at her questioningly, Liv continued, "Lincoln told me what happened. To Charlie, your partner."

It was deadly quiet for a minute before Olivia put on a brave face. She knew she needed to get over this. It had been a long time, but the shock of seeing someone who looked exactly like the close friend and confidant she had lost was so hard. It was the worst shock imaginable, especially because she had known him. She had seen him again, worked alongside him again, and couldn't even remember it. That was the part she regretted most about her experience on the Other Side. Not that she almost forgot Peter, not that she let them brainwash her. She regretted that she couldn't remember what it felt like to work with Charlie and solve cases with him, even if it wasn't the same Charlie she had known. The shape-shifter hadn't been the same Charlie, and she had never been able to tell the difference then, either, she thought bitterly. "Thank you." She said quietly, before slipping out of the room to discharge the redhead.

"That was nice of you," Lincoln commented, and Liv rolled her eyes.

"I am capable of being civil, you know." She said.

"I know," He replied, "but I'm just putting that out there."

"If anyone should be civil to anyone, it should be me, after what I did to her." Liv said fiercely, and Lincoln was reminded once again of why he had fallen for her. She firmly believed in doing what was right, and in doing something wrong herself, she was determined to make things better.

"Let's get out of here," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders, "we have a lot of work to do."

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><p><em>First of all, I am so sorry this has taken so long! I fully expect to have no readers left anymore. So so so sorry but college has just started again so things are so hectic! Also, apologies for how short this is. The next one will be longer! x<em>


	16. Another author's note  Please read!

Hi everyone! First let me start by saying that I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this story in a long time. I've been very busy lately, I moved out of my parents' house! It's been a big change that's been really hard for me, so I haven't felt much like writing lately. Also school is picking up and I've been really stressed out with the workload that I have. I just started a second job as well, so I haven't had much time to myself. Second, I want everyone to know that I **do** plan to continue this story. I'm not sure how many chapters are left after this one, but I am planning on finishing it, even if no one is left to read it! If you're still waiting for an update, thank you for being so patient with me, I really appreciate it.

I've started the next chapter, and I hope to have it posted this weekend. Thank you again!

- Katie


	17. Chapter 15

**A/N: **_It's official. I am the worst. I am so sorry for not being regular with the chapter updates. I have been really lacking inspiration for this, and I still have to kind of map out where I'm going with the ending. So bear with me please, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter! Remember, reviews are lovely!_

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><p>The Olivias, Astrids, Peter, Charlie and Lincoln had been crowded over a small table in Walter's lab for hours, poring over every last file that the Fringe Division had on the Machine. The Olivias were mostly quiet, not talking to each other at all, and not really speaking to anyone else, either.<p>

Lincoln glanced at Liv every few minutes, his brow knitted in worry. "Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" He whispered, and she shut her eyes in irritation.

"Lincoln, stop. I'm fine, we have bigger problems to solve!"

Charlie glanced over, shooting Lincoln a look that told him to drop it. "Everything okay over there, boss?"

"Stop calling me that," Lincoln rolled his eyes.

"Can we get back to work?" Peter 's voice interrupted their quiet bickering.

Lincoln glared at him, "We should take a break. We've been at it for hours."

"We don't know how long we have until your boss shoves his way into this universe, so no, I don't think we should take a break."

"Stop it, both of you." Astrid interrupted, "You're acting like children, and this is neither the time nor the place for you to have a power struggle."

Lincoln looked down sheepishly. Peter, however, stood his ground, "I'm not interested in a power struggle. I'm interested in keeping this universe alive."

"We all are, Peter! That's why we're all here, that's why people have crossed _universes_!" Astrid clenched her fist, and no one around the table made a sound. Peter was looking at her as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, and a hint of a smile ghosted on Olivia's face, as if she had been waiting for the day Astrid would combat Peter's stubbornness.

"Look, I'm sorry if us coming here is causing all this tension, but we're all in it for the same reasons you are. If we even tried to go back there now, we'd be arrested, probably worse. So don't think that we did this as a favor for you," Liv spoke up, looking at Peter, "We're doing this for other reasons, too. We have our own universe to save, unless you forgot."

"I didn't mean…" Peter ran a hand through his hair, "I just meant that I don't think we can afford to sit around and chit chat. We don't know what we're up against. We need to figure as much out as we can before he gets here."

No one had said Walternate's name in days. The fear of a name _had_ increased fear of the thing itself, but it was a habit they had all slipped into. "We know the machine is temporarily inactive," Lincoln started, "We know that they at least partially shut it down."

"The Secretary has the blueprints for the Machine," Astrid was mentally calculating, "There's an eighty percent chance that he will bring them with him when he crosses over."

"So you're saying he's going to keep them on his person so that we can't get to them?"

"Given his past with you, Peter, he is going to be very suspicious when he comes here and will not trust anyone to shut down the machine themselves."

"What does that mean, though?" The other Astrid asked, her face full of confusion.

"It means that we're not going to get that machine off unless we can get the blueprints, and he's not going to willingly give them up, even if it means destroying two universes in the process." Olivia finished, and Astrid nodded.

"Isn't that what I said?" Lincoln and Charlie shared a look.

"Look, we don't have time to bicker about these things. I know you're all tense," Olivia said firmly, "But the truth of the matter is that we are running out of time. There's no way we can stop him from coming, but there are ways that we can delay him doing anything once he gets here."

"I can try to predict where he will show up, if that will help." Farnsworth said, and Liv nodded.

"That would help a lot. If you don't mind, I think we should take a break but you could get started on that if you want?" Lincoln watched Liv as she talked to the autistic girl, and he smiled involuntarily. It seemed that Liv becoming a mother had made her gentler, and he liked seeing her talking to Astrid as if she was a person, and not just a computer.

The team dispersed, and Charlie, Liv and Lincoln made their way back to the hotel that the FBI had put them up in for their time here. Lincoln grabbed Liv's hand about halfway back and resisted the urge to roll his eyes when he saw Charlie smile at him, clearly wanting to mock him for being so affectionate in public.

Lincoln had never been that way before. He was always one to keep his emotions to himself, until he joined Fringe Division. When he met Olivia, she was the same way. They had both believed that emotions were a hindrance to any operation, and that right there should have tipped him off to when his Olivia had been switched for theirs. That Olivia was very emotional, almost costing them several missions. He admired her now, for having done her job even when she knew she didn't belong there. Her emotional side had allowed her to do that.

Now that Lincoln was in a stable relationship (if that sort of thing even existed in their word), and a father figure to Henry, he was unable to see how emotions could be a bad thing. He was filled with conflicting emotions all day long, and if he kept them in, he'd be a wreck. He was worried for Henry and Liv's Mom, he was worried for Liv and he was scared of what was going to happen to both universes. At the same time, he was in love. That feeling filled him up almost to the brim, and he had a hard time keeping it at bay. This is what Charlie was noticing, and Lincoln didn't even bother trying to deny it anymore.

"We should figure out a plan," Liv interrupted his thoughts, and he looked down at her while they walked. "I know we said we'd take a break, but I don't feel right just sitting around waiting for something to happen."

"We'll figure it out once Farnsworth does her thing," Charlie said, "We're not doing any good by hovering and pressuring her."

"I know that," Liv argued, "Like I said, it just doesn't feel right. On our side, we take charge and do everything quickly, and here they spend a lot of time talking. It's… different."

The three walked in silence, thinking about what was going to happen in the next few days. They didn't even know how long it was going to be before the universes were essentially at war, save for the three of them fighting for both sides. It could be days before the Secretary arrived, or it could be hours. They had no way of knowing.

That was not how Lincoln operated. He liked to be prepared. He needed to know the situation in order to make a call on how it should be handled, although he had a funny feeling that Peter and Olivia were going to call all the shots on this one. He wondered how Liv would take it, being bossed around by her doppelganger and her ex. He scowled at the term 'ex', but forced himself to admit that that's what they were. He wondered how long it would be before Liv would want to tell Peter that he had a son.

If it were Lincoln, he'd want to know. And he knew that Peter would demand to be a presence in his son's life. He wasn't an idiot; he knew Peter would do the honorable thing, that is, if they all got out of this alive. He forced himself not to be selfish when it came to Henry, but he couldn't help thinking that the entire thing had happened out of deception in the first place, so there wasn't anything wrong with keeping Peter in the dark until they were out of this mess.

Arriving at the hotel, Charlie went to his room, and even though Lincoln told Liv a million times that they didn't have to share a room, she went into their room without a word and lay down on the bed, looking exhausted.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

She looked at him for a long moment before sitting up, sitting cross legged. "Olivia told me that when she was younger, she crossed over and didn't even know she did it. That's how easy it is for her." She paused, swallowing, "We're not the same person, not even close. Besides our names and DNA, we're completely different. I was never treated the way she was when she was younger. My body isn't equipped to do the types of things that she does."

Lincoln approached her slowly, not sure what he was supposed to say. He thought she was amazing, but he felt like telling her that would make it seem cheap somehow. "You're right," he said finally, "You're not at all the same, but isn't that comforting to you? That there isn't a person identical to you out there, doing the same things you're doing day after day?"

"We're not at all the same, but no one could tell when we switched places. That's how interchangeable we are."

Lincoln tensed, his jaw immediately clenching. He felt incredibly guilty about the entire situation, but they had talked about this, over and over. She had never brought it up before; it was always him trying to rectify a situation that, according to her, didn't need to be fixed. Obviously she still held a grudge about it and he was at a loss of what to do. "I'm sorry." He settled on, trying to read her facial expression for any clues as to what she was thinking.

"I know you're sorry, and I know you couldn't have known, it's just that to me, we seem so different, but everyone keeps acting like we're the same person. You have me and Peter has Olivia, yet you two can't be in the same room for an hour without fighting like nine year olds."

"He is the father of the child that I'm helping to raise." Lincoln said firmly, letting his frustrations out, "You're damn right that I resent him for that. I resent that he has a wonderful, beautiful little boy that would probably love to have Peter Bishop for a father. I resent that you and he shared that experience together and that now he's a constant reminder of everything that I don't have with you."

"I told you, I want you to be his father!"

"Then you should have waited for me!" Lincoln yelled, and Liv froze, never hearing him get this emotional about Henry before. "You knew how I felt about you, you've known it for years. I know you were undercover, I know you did what you felt needed to be done, but it hurts Liv, it really hurts, because you make it sound like you've had feelings for me all this time as well, and if that's the case…" Lincoln trailed off, running a hand over his face, "If that's the case then you should have come back for me. You should have come back sooner and we could have…"

Lincoln stopped short when Olivia pushed herself to her knees and pulled him so he was standing next to the bed. They were at eye level now, and she grabbed his face in two hands and pulled him down to her, meeting his lips. The kiss was desperate, not unlike the ones they'd shared before, but he could taste her tears and a few of his own, and the emotions coursing through him weren't anything he had ever dealt with before this. Before her.

"You are it for me, do you understand that?" She whispered when they broke apart, "You're all that I really need, or care to have, forever."

Lincoln's words died in his throat at her confession, and he closed his eyes when she touched his face once more. "Liv…"

"You don't have to say anything. I don't want to fight anymore. Let's just get some sleep." She climbed up the bed and got under the covers, grinning as she patted the spot next to her.

He chuckled despite himself and took off his boots, crawling under the covers with her fully dressed. She scooted close to him and he wrapped her up in his arms, and the two of them fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.


End file.
